Mersey Valley

Cob Kiln Wood 
(This is the path that's usually six-inches deep in mud)

If I didn't feel like doing much yesterday I felt like doing a whole lot less today after a horribly humid night and a not much better morning. I was wondering why it was feeling so clammy on such a cool day so I checked the weather and found out it was still 26°C and the humidity was 82%. The "cool day" was actually warm and muggy. There'll be some recalibration needing doing after the three day heatwave.

It was cooler outside than in thanks to a steady breeze so it made sense to go for a walk. I began to question the wisdom of this when the breeze dropped but I persevered. This turned out to be the right move as the afternoon slowly got less humid, which was odd as it was looking more and more like it was going to rain. I walked past the allotments with their noisy blackbirds and goldfinches and moseyed on over to Cob Kiln Wood.

I was pleasantly surprised to bump into a female emperor dragonfly when I arrived at Cob Kiln Wood, she was quartering the little clearing by the entrance.

The most immediately obvious thing about the wood today was that every path was bone dry and as hard as concrete. The one obstacle was a branch of crack willow which had done what it says on the tin and cracked in the hot weather but it wasn't difficult to climb around it.

The second most immediately obvious thing was that the cooler weather was triggering more bird song. Chiffchaffs, blackcaps and song thrushes sang in the trees, families of greenfinches and goldfinches sang and twittered as they passed overhead. (A feature of the whole afternoon was the squadrons of woodpigeons flying overhead between fields.) As I walked through the clearing by the electricity pylons families of bullfinches and chiffchaffs foraged in the treetops and wrens and great tits worked their way through the bushes.

As I crossed the Mersey a mallard was escorting her three young ducklings as they moved upstream up the weir.

Banky Meadow was noisy with the songs of chiffchaffs, wrens, blackcaps and song thrushes. A pheasant called from somewhere in one of the fields and a couple of ring-necked parakeets screeched their way over to the rugby pitch. I wouldn't have spotted the family of willow warblers in one of the big alder trees had it not been for the insistent nasal squeak of the youngsters. I dropped down to the river for a nosey then thought the better of it as an old rough was monopolising the beach for firing practice with his pistol. (I had wondered why a gang of kids were in a rush to go up as I was going down).

I debated walking on over to Carrington to get the 255 bus home (the Arriva bus drivers are on strike at the moment so there was no number 18 to pick up in Ashton-on-Mersey). Then I noticed there was a 280 to Altrincham due in five minutes so I caught that. This bus takes in a big loop through Carrington, Partington, Warburton and Dunham Massey, I've been wondering how easy or not it would be to get to Dunham Massey Park and it turns out to be quite easy.