Stalybridge

Robin, Besom Lane

I'd been waiting for the lunchtime delivery of a new pair of boots so I had to postpone the planned excursion. Having received them I thought I should go for a walk so we can get to know each other. I've pretty much neglected the Eastern half of Greater Manchester this month so I thought I'd have that explore of Stalybridge Country Park.

I got the train to Stalybridge and the 348 to Millbrook. The entrance to the park is just back down the road at the sharp corner. There wasn't a lot about: a couple of chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang in the trees, swallows, pigeons and jackdaws flew overhead, a mallard and a couple of moorhens shared a small pond.

Stalybridge Country Park 

I'd been told of a path that runs across the top of a water drain up to the end of the park at Brushes Road. I found it and followed it through the woodland. As I'd expect this time of year it was fairly quiet, more chiffchaffs and blackcaps, a few blackbirds and wrens singing, young robins, blue tits and long-tailed tits rustling in the undergrowth. In the middle of the wood I was surprised to find a stand of common spotted orchids in amongst the ferns.

Common spotted orchid
Stalybridge Country Park

Once I got to Brushes Road it seemed silly not to go the couple of hundred yards to Walkerswood Reservoir to see what was about. The answer, on the water at least, was just a few black-headed gulls and a lesser black-back. The margins were a different matter. A willow warbler and a song thrush sang from the conifers on the far bank while chiffchaffs, blackbirds and blackcaps sang from the alders and birches by Brushes Road. The hillside by the road is more open, woodpigeons and blackbirds fed on the grass or sat in bushes while a male kestrel hovered overhead.

Walkerswood Reservoir 

I got to the top of Walkerswood Reservoir and decided I wouldn't go up any further as I'd only intended to have a quick toddle round the country park. A flurry of activity in the Rhododendrons up the road caught my eye so I went to investigate and found a family of great tits bouncing round in there.  Further along there were some starlings and wrens, it took me a few minutes to find the young coal tit rummaging around in some bilberries and I only got a fleeting glimpse of the buzzard I could hear calling over the hillside.

Walkerswood Reservoir 

I decided this was really as far as I was going and turned back. At the bottom of Walkerswood Reservoir I decided to leave Brushes Road and take the path that becomes Besom Lane. The fields were jam-packed with jackdaws, there were handfuls of woodpigeons and pheasants about and a few swallows hawked overhead.

Pheasant, Besom Lane

I got down to the bottom of Besom Lane with ten minutes to wait for the next bus back. I didn't see a lot of variety of birds but it was a good couple of hours' birdwatching.