Chat Moss

Buzzard

I thought I should take advantage of the interlude between rainfalls and get a walk in. I also thought it would be wise to stick to somewhere with metalled roads after yesterday's downpours. So I got the 100 from the Trafford Centre into Irlam and strolled up Cutnook Lane into Chat Moss.

It had been a grey but dry morning and a lot of the wet on the road had been blown dry by the wind. Despite the wind there was plenty of small bird activity in the hedgerows. I couldn't work out if there were two mixed tit flocks or one very extended one. A dozen long-tailed tits bounced around in the company of half a dozen blue tits in the trees and bushes just after the riding stables while another dozen or more long-tailed tits flitted about round the entrance to the fishery with a couple of pairs of great tits and a pair of bullfinches.

Chat Moss 

The wind got up as I passed the fishery and brought the rain in with it. I didn't fancy walking headfirst into it down Twelve Yards Road so I carried on up the path by the pools in the shelter of the trees. I had a clearish view of most of the pools through the bare birch saplings but couldn't see anything about. It wasn't much better in the open ground between the path and the railway line to the North, just a couple of carrion crows and a lesser black-back. 

Chat Moss 

The wind calmed down as I carried on though the rain carried on pouring down. I could hear teal whistling on the pools but only managed to see one of them. Past the pools and the scrap of woodland I stopped and scanned the fields next to Twelve Yards Road, expecting to see nothing but a couple of carrion crows. I was right about the crows but there was also a merlin that had obviously decided to sit out the rainstorm.

Merlin

The original plan had been to carry on down to Astley Road then on to Irlam but I decided I just couldn't be doing with it, there's no merit in being wet and miserable and I'd added the merlin to the year list. So I headed down Twelve Yards Road back to Cutnook Lane. I was about halfway down when the sun came out out of spite and it was a bright sunny afternoon for the rest of the walk.

Twelve Yards Road 

Kestrel

The sunshine brought the birds out of cover. I was watching a buzzard digging for worms a couple of fields away when a pair of kestrels flew past, heading for Little Woolden Moss from the farm with the nest boxes. A bunch of birds including a couple of fieldfares and a yellowhammer flew off from the next stubble field along. Turning back after watching them go I noticed a buzzard flying into the trees over by the pools. We checked each other out and I moved along. I was just adding a pheasant to the year list when another kestrel flew in, a streaky first-Winter bird this time. It made a few forays around the fields and telegraph poles before flying off towards the fishery.

Kestrel

I was tempted to carry on walking into Barton Moss but there was a pot of tea calling my name back home. Besides, I didn't want to push my luck.

There was a tremendous racket as I turned into Cutnook Lane, a pair of buzzards display flying low over the patch of birch heath on the other side of the trees. I watched a while as they drifted off towards Barton Moss. There's a healthy buzzard population hereabouts these days.

Cutnook Lane 

One last mixed tit flock — long-tailed, blue and great — and a bunch of magpies and a jay in the trees by the stables then over the motorway bridge for the bus home. Definitely a walk of two halves.

Twelve Yards Road