Leigh

Lapwing chick, Pennington Flash

I looked at the weather and pollen forecasts and decided that it would be a good time to do a bit of exploration of the bit of the old Bickershaw Rucks between Plank Lane and Bickershaw. It's Terra Incognita for me and doesn't involve any trains (the lists of cancellations this week have been horrendous). Rather than taking the bus to Plank Lane I thought I'd have an hour in Pennington Flash to get my eye in, which meant I wasn't hanging round Leigh Bus Station for forty minutes.

Black-headed gull, Pennington Flash

The light showers predicted by the Met Office had become heavy rain by the time I was walking down towards the car park at Pennington Flash. I'll have to get a new flat cap, the Benny hat is too warm for Summer and putting the hood up on my raincoat means I can't hear any bird calls or song over the sound of raindrops hitting the fabric. It abated by the time I got to the car park and I managed a decent potter about.

Pied wagtail, Pennington Flash

There wasn't a lot different from my last visit: there were more lapwing chicks about, the great crested grebes that weren't sitting on nests had good-sized chicks in tow and most of the juvenile black-headed gulls were in flying condition, albeit a bit graceless in their landings. Most of the mallards and gadwalls were well into eclipse plumage now. The lousy weather had brought in a cloud of fifty or more swifts but hirundines were notably absent.

Great crested grebe and chick, Pennington Flash

Heron, Pennington Flash

The reed warblers on the Tom Edmondson Hide were too busy collecting food to be skulking in the reeds. They seem to have found rich pickings in the brambles on the bank, having to break off every so often to chase off the pair from the reeds across the path.

I could only see one of the little ringed plovers and one of the chicks on Ramsdales. There's plenty enough grass cover now for the others to have been out of sight. The car park Cetti's warbler had been singing by the entrance, the usual Cetti's had a brief sing from its brambles and I thought I heard a third doing a practice run in the reeds the other side of Ramsdales.

Little ringed plover, Pennington Flash

Little ringed plover chick, Pennington Flash

I walked up to the canal then followed the path that goes through the more open land towards Plank Lane. The blackcaps and chiffchaffs of the woods by the flash gave way to willow warblers and whitethroats.

Mandarin duck, Plank Lane

As I approached the bridge at Plank Lane a drake mandarin duck flew in to join the mallards on the canal, just a few orange plumes left on his cheeks from his breeding plumage.

I walked through the new housing estate and found the path shown on Google Maps. It's not a route I'll be repeating, if I come this way again I'll come in via Bickershaw Country Park proper. A hundred yards in the path became navigable and mostly veered unsteadily between rough and God-awful most of the way with odd patches of abandoned metalled road.

I didn't go down this path, though it looked like a soft landing after a steep forty foot drop

There was a profusion of vetches and clovers on the grassy patches

Not all the slag had been vegetated yet

The path I did take, apparently this is Shuffle Hillock Road

The terrain was a mixture of lightly wooded scrub, grassland and bare coal slag. Families of great tits and blue tits bounced around the bushes, willow warblers and whitethroats sang and a pair of buzzards soared over the treetops, taking advantage of the warm air over the rises.

The road ended at a scrap metal yard in Bickershaw so I retraced my steps a bit and found the path that curls round to the Northern part of the country park with the entrance by the bus stop on Bickershaw Road.

I think my next visit would be more productive if I got the number 9 bus from Wigan to this stop then took a meandering route round and down to the pools on the country park.