Worsley Woods

Teal, Old Warke Dam

It was a mild, grey but pretty uninspiring sort of a day and I certainly didn't feel inspired enough for the delivery of any of the big ideas I'd had for the day. Eventually I settled on a late afternoon walk down Duke's Drive onto the Roe Green Loop and into Worsley Woods. I'd be getting a bit of exercise and the birds would be too busy feeding up for the night to worry about the likes of me.

Duke's Drive 

I got the 20 from the Trafford Centre and got off at Monton Green, crossing over the road and up the slope onto Duke's Drive. It was Saturday afternoon and not raining so it was fairly busy with people but not uncomfortably so. Robins and blackbirds sang, pairs of great tits, blue tits and long-tailed tits almost formed mixed tit flocks and ring-necked parakeets inspected potential nesting holes. 

Worsley Station 

Duke's Drive is the stretch of the old Eccles to Bolton railway line that ran between Monton Green and Worsley Stations. There was an actual mixed tit flock at Worsley Station, a family group of long-tailed tits, some great tits and blue tits and a very active pair of goldcrests. Mallards are pairing up and finding quiet patches of water to themselves now and a pair were on the little brook by Worsley Road.

Under Worsley Road 

I walked through the tunnel and out into Worsley Woods. I decided not to walk down into Roe Green, heading off up the embankment and over to Old Warke Dam instead. My knees ached as I climbed the steps up the embankment in sympathy with an elderly dog walker whose knees ached as he walked down. I was awarded at the top by finding the song thrush I'd been hearing all the way up sitting in an elderberry bush by the path in the company of a blackbird and a couple of blue tits.

Black-headed gull, Old Warke Dam

The pool at Old Warke Dam was noisy with black-headed gulls as they and a dozen mallards mugged passersby for scraps. A couple of coots and moorhens joined the throng but the teal, a couple of dozen of them, kept to themselves, preening and dozing and whistling to each other. I was surprised not to see any mute swans or Canada geese about. 

Moorhen and dabchick, Old Warke Dam

I walked along the path that rises towards Worsley, the end of the pool by the dam had a couple of tufted ducks and three dabchicks feeding busily. The lighting was challenging but I had a go at taking some photos. I've given up on the autofocus on the big lens, it's always been a struggle in some lighting conditions or with fussy backgrounds and has become worse. I'm not getting an appreciably bigger proportion of out-of-focus photos doing it manually and I'm better able to concentrate on the subject and tweak the camera settings for the picture. As always in these conditions it's a bald choice between using a slow shutter speed to get lots of mid tones or a relatively fast shutter speed to minimise camera shake with a big lens. In these cases "relatively fast" meant one-eightieth of a second.

Dabchick, Old Warke Dam
"Challenging" light.

Passing the dam, on a whim I took the path that drops down to Worsley Brook and runs along the other side. A male grey wagtail was foraging in the brook while wrens, dunnocks and squirrels rummaged about on the woodland floor. Robins and song thrushes sang while coal tits, nuthatches and blue tits quietly went about their business. 

Worsley Brook

My knees took an even greater exception to the flight of steps back up to the main path though I took consolation in the mixed flock of long-tailed tits and goldcrests on the way up and the great tits watching for me at the top.

Worsley Woods 

I followed the path out of the wood to the Worsley Delph, where a pair of Canada geese dozed on an old mine barge, and crossed over to Worsley Green for the 20 back to the Trafford Centre. It had been a good woodland wander, I'd got a bit of exercise and got the timing right for a bit of birdwatching.