Mosses

Chat Moss, Twelve Yards Road 

I had a birdwatching day off yesterday, recharging my batteries by having a walk in the Winter sunshine around Platt Fields. I had a few plans for today but shelved them, I've lost confidence in my ability to walk on sheets of ice at the moment and wanted to wait for the sun to start breaking them up a bit. Not wanting to waste a nice Winter's day I decided on a walk on Chat Moss, not wanting a repeat of the other day's fiasco I went to the Trafford Centre and got the 100 to Cutnook Lane.

Cutnook Lane 

It was a dead clear January day, the only clouds being wispy stuff on the horizon. The ground underfoot along the lane alternated between dead clear and stretches of gritty ice depending on the density of the hedgerows on the West but was entirely passable. There were three mixed tit flocks, or one very extended one, between the motorway and the fishery: long-tailed tits and blue tits by the motorway bridge; long-tailed tits and coal tits by the lane to the stables; and a mixed bag of great tits, long-tailed tits, blue tits and a treecreeper by the fishery that moved off into the birch heath. A small flock of fieldfares and mistle thrushes were feeding over in the paddocks by the motorway. I kept seeing movements in the water in the deep ditch on the right, pairs of mallards quietly scoping out nesting sites. Given the number of dogs that go for a walk along here I hope they have the sense to nest on the far bank.

Cutnook Lane 

Twelve Yards Road 

Twelve Yards Road was fair walking though I couldn't work out the reason for the patches of ice as there was only one stretch of hedgerow that might cast enough shadow to hinder a thaw. Perhaps it's differences in drainage in the gravel. There wasn't much about that wasn't a woodpigeon or a carrion crow. I could hear the coots, mallards and at least one heron calling from the fishery and wrens scolded from the pathside drains. The buzzard flew back into its tree and the kestrel flew by and headed for the pools beyond the trees. 

Twelve Yards Road 

By Four Lanes End, looking towards Hephzibah Farm 

By the time I got to Four Lanes End I'd seen a handful of chaffinches in the trees and hedges, I've not been seeing big flocks of finches at all this Winter. At Four Lanes End a small flock of fieldfares rattled and flew off to the poplars over at Hephzibah Farm while blackbirds and a song thrush stayed put and went about their business. Another mixed tit flock, including a nuthatch, bounced between the trees and the farmhouse garden.

Turf fields, Astley Road

There had been a sudden influx of walkers from Astley Road so it was evident that was passable today. I had wondered about getting back to Irlam via Little Woolden Moss but decided against, it was less than an hour till sunset and I didn't want to push my luck by having to negotiate the dodgier bits of road in twilight. There were thin pickings in the snow on the turf fields, a couple of carrion crows, while magpies and blackbirds kept the horses company in the paddocks. A kestrel flew by, none of them seemed to be in hunting mode this afternoon.

Irlam Moss 

I crossed the motorway and walked into Irlam. A handful of chaffinches flew overhead, a few goldfinches fed in the hedgerow by the Jack Russell's gate, a pheasant called from somewhere near Roscoe Road and a buzzard flew over into the trees near Zinnia Street. 

Astley Road 

I negotiated the rollercoaster at the end of the moss and walked down to get the 100 bus back. It hadn't been the most productive few hours' birdwatching on the moss but it had been a good walk and I'd improved my morale somewhat in the walking of it.