Bolton

Waxwing, Darcy Lever

Feeling a best less sorry for myself and filled with tea and porridge I set out for Bolton to see if the waxwing was still hanging about the housing estate in Darcy Lever. 

It was only a short ride out on the 511 from Bolton and perhaps a hundred yards walk from the bus stop, complicated by roadworks and pavements being dug up. I'd scarcely turned into Laurel Avenue when I spotted where the waxwing was: there were a dozen people standing round a tree in somebody's front garden. The sight dismayed me, especially once I noticed that it was sitting in the top of the tree eating berries and I was getting a better view of it than anyone trying to stare through the tree. I stayed where I was, took a couple of record shots and moved on. I dare say I could have got better pictures by moving a little way down the street but I didn't want to bother. The welfare of the bird — and the local residents — comes well before my need to have a photograph.

Darcy Lever gravel pits 

Seeing as I was in the area I thought I'd have a nosy at the Darcy Lever gravel pits, just behind the housing estate. It's mostly wet birch and alder woodland with a few small pools, the sort of environment that makes you think of willow tits and woodcocks even if you see no sign of either. It was a blustery day and all the small bird noises were being made by the trees so I had to search by sight alone. The teal in one of the pools and the magpies and robins in the trees were easy enough, the flocks of long-tailed tits and blue tits were harder work.

Darcy Lever gravel pits 

Elf's cup fungus

I dropped down into the Darcy Lever half of Moses Gate Country Park, another place I've not explored before. The woods were very quiet, most of the small birds were keeping under cover in the wind. It's an odd sort of walk round when a treecreeper's the most conspicuous bird. A female bullfinch skittered about in an evergreen bush I couldn't recognise and great tits, dunnocks and robins called from deep cover somewhere in the brambles along the path. It took me a while to realise that the path I was walking was actually the wall of this end of the Bolton and Bury Canal.

The Bolton and Bury Canal 

Moses Gate Country Park 

I crossed the road into the Moses Gate half of Moses Gate Country Park, which was a bit busier. A buzzard floated about the field next to the road and a mixed tit flock bounced around the hedgerow by the path. There were hundreds of black-headed gulls about, split between birds loafing on the grass by the play area and birds loafing on the water with the dozens of herring gulls in one corner of the lake. There was plenty of waterfowl about: dozens of coots, mallards, Canada geese and mute swans, small rafts of tufted ducks and a few great crested grebes. 

First-Winter great crested grebe, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter herring gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

I had a slow wander about for an hour then called it quits for the day. I'd kept the year list ticking over and explored a couple of new places to me.