Mosses

Fieldfare, Chat Moss

I didn't want to waste a bright, sunny December day so I went for a stroll across the Salford mosses. The weather stayed fine, if a bit nippy, but I had to work a bit at the birdwatching. Which is no bad thing, it gets boring if you're spoonfed all the while. I got the lunchtime train to Irlam and set off up Astley Road. Unusually, the Zinnia Street house sparrows were busy elsewhere and the hedgerows were relatively quiet.

Woodpigeons, Irlam Moss
This is the largest number of woodpigeons I'd seen at one place at one time in Greater Manchester for about a month.

There were a few crows in the fields and a couple of blackbirds about. The kestrel was perched on one of the telegraph poles near the houses for a change. Its usual perch was occupied by a trio of woodpigeons. There were a couple more further down the road but at no time today we're there any flocks of any size. 

Irlam Moss 

Things picked up in the hedgerows by the Jack Russell's gate. I spent a while disentangling a mixed tit flock from a mixed finch flock. The family of long-tailed tits and the goldfinches were easy enough, the bullfinches and chaffinches were elusive and the great tits and blue tits were busy in some ivies. All the while three or four dunnocks noisily chased each other in the leafy debris and nettles in the undergrowth. There were more birds in the hedge running down the lane to Prospect Grange but all save a few blue tits were keeping to the densest parts of the hawthorns.

Stock doves, Chat Moss

I crossed the motorway and walked down to Four Lanes End. The paddocks by the motorway were busy with blackbirds and robins, the hedgerows dead quiet. I was thinking that the turf fields were being a bit barren, a good crop of carrion crows and magpies but no wagtails or gulls, when a flock of a dozen stock doves rose up and settled back down to feed by a pile of palettes. Somehow the rich, warm lighting brought out the blue shades of the doves' plumage. Further investigation found a flock of mistle thrushes and a pied wagtail behind a barn, a couple of distant kestrels and a passing cormorant.

Chat Moss 

Chat Moss 

At Four Lanes End a flock of blackbirds had found the only rowan berries for miles and a flock of fieldfares flew in from the stubble fields to chatter in the branches above my head as I tried, and failed, to find out what was making the loud knocking noise at the base of a tree.

Little Woolden Moss

I had a brief look at Little Woolden Moss, just to touch base really. It was quiet in the late afternoon sun (there's not a lot of time between lunchtime and late afternoon this time of year). The usual family of carrion crows bobbed around on the far side of the moss. Wrens, blackbirds and linnets were closer to hand. In the far distance a flock of a hundred or so lapwings were flying off to roost. I spent a while just drinking in the light and colour.

Little Woolden Moss 

I retraced my steps and headed off down Twelve Yards Road. There were more fieldfares flitting between trees. I checked them all out to make sure they were all fieldfares, I've no idea what I was hoping to find but it was nice to find a few redwings and a yellowhammer. I've been finding buntings a bit thin on the ground this Autumn and I'm not sure if that's down to bad luck, bad fieldcraft or something similar to what's been going on with the woodpigeons.

Twelve Yards Road 

The last of the chaffinches and meadow pipits were settling in to roost in the stubble fields while a pair of kestrels hovered over the rough margins on either side. A scan around in the hopes of finding a barn owl over the rough grazing found me a buzzard and half a dozen woodpigeons. I didn't see any of the dozen female pheasants in the barley stubble until they saw me and flew up into the middle of the field.

Cutnook Lane 

A buzzard was sitting in the trees at the corner of Cutnook Lane. It flew over into the denser trees on the other side of the road and watched as I set off down the lane. There were more blackbirds and a few robins, song thrushes and woodpigeons as the sun set. 

Cutnook Lane 

I was over the bridge and onto Merlin Road just in time for the 100 to the Trafford Centre to go past before I got to the bus stop so I had to walk down to Liverpool Road for the 67 into Eccles and catch a bus from there. I hadn't really been feeling the cold while I was walking but I felt it in my leg muscles as I stood waiting for the bus. Still, I'd got a few hours' exercise and the weather had been dead right.

Chat Moss