Muddy boots

Robin, Amberswood

I needed the exercise after yesterday so I had another go at yesterday's walk once I'd made sure the cat had tuna and the spadgers had fat balls and sunflower seeds (an extravagance, I know, but it's been bringing the goldfinches back in).

House sparrow, one of the "tawny" family, Stretford

Collared doves, Stretford

At the Trafford Centre I got the 132 to Wigan, the idea being to get off at Dangerous Corner (I do not invent these place names) and walk up to Daisy Hill Sewage Works (I repeat, I do not invent these place names). The water pipit I didn't manage to see last Winter is back so I thought I'd give it another go.

I got off at Dangerous Corner and tried — and failed — to find the end of the footpath I discovered last time when I was walking South from Daisy Hill. In the end I gave up and took the footpath up to Daisy Hill that runs North on the other side of the sewage works, thinking I might pick up the other path at the other end.

Walking to Daisy Hill

It was a bright, cloudy day which had brought out the woodpigeons and blackbirds on the way over. There were plenty of blackbirds in the hawthorn bushes in the fields by the path and a flock of blue tits and great tits bounced their way around them. The first hundred yards was atrociously muddy, the consequence of its being used as a bridleway though judging by the prints and broken down fence somebody had taken a rhinoceros for a walk recently. Robins and dunnocks took advantage of the disturbed ground and stood and watched while I disturbed it further. 

A dozen skylarks, Daisy Hill

I crossed the brook onto the open stubble fields where a dozen skylarks did a very good job of being invisible whenever they settled and a few magpies and black-headed gulls were raking over the pieces.

I couldn't find the footpath I was looking for. Google Maps suggested walking into the water treatment works for a wander but seeing as it's got big gates with "Keep out" on them I decided not to. Instead, seeing as there's a bus stop for the number 7 to Wigan at the corner of the lane and one was due in seven minutes I took the hint and waited for that in the company of a flock of starlings and a goldcrest.

The number 7 goes past Amberswood so I got off for an afternoon stroll. As I joined the path a flock of greenfinches gathered in the trees and a couple of robins fed on the ground. A mixed tit flock moved quietly through the gorse bushes, a willow tit making a point of popping out to have a look at me before retreating back into the depths. All the small bird noises were the dropping of dry leaves and the popping of gorse seedpods.

Amberswood 

I got to the point where the path diverges and one track drops down to the lake. One of the dog walkers stopped and told me that she'd just seen some deer down the other path so I took that to see where it went and whether or not I'd have the same luck. I hadn't gone far when I discovered I'd made the right choice: a beagle was doing a fair impersonation of the Hound of the Baskervilles down by the lake. A large, dark shape moving through the trees turned out to be a particularly dark, sooty brown buzzard with not a lot of white to its underparts. A bit further down, in one of the open glades, a sparrowhawk flashed by followed by a lot of relieved pinking in the trees behind me as a flock of chaffinches did a roll call. I had no luck with any deer, not altogether surprising given all the dog walkers and the howling beagle.

The path curves round at the corner near Liverpool Road and heads towards the lake, emerging about halfway down the path I took last week. I looked in vain for the juvenile scaups that were there last time but was compensated by a goldeneye amongst the tufted ducks. A lone first-Winter great crested grebe floated in the middle of the lake while a pair of dabchicks steamed across in close formation. It took me a while to find the teal in the edges of the reedbed. The mallards were a lot easier, they were congregated in the open water at the top end and were very busy and vocal with their billing and cooing. While I was watching them in the setting sun I was surprised to hear a chiffchaff calling in the trees behind me.

Tufted ducks, Amberswood

I didn't have time to do more than say hello to Low Hall in the twilight before the 559 to Bolton was due. A flock of long-tailed tits flitted by and a few dozen jackdaws flew in to roost in the trees. Not a bad end to the day.

Amberswood