Mosses

Lapwing, Chat Moss

A really rough night's sleep (no names, no pack drill: it was the cat) had me bleary-eyed and achy so I decided that in the circumstances the walk planned for today was a bit over-ambitious. New Moss Wood is one of the places I haven't got to yet this year so I had a late breakfast/early lunch and set off. (We don't do brunch in this house, it only encourages the cat.) I went over to Barton and got the 67 to Cadishead, a tactical error as the roadworks at Port Salford took nearly twenty minutes to crawl through so it would have been quicker to leave home later, get the train into Irlam and get the 67 from there.

I got off the bus opposite Cadishead Library and walked up New Moss Road. It was a bright and warm Spring lunchtime and the robins, blackbirds and wrens were singing in people's gardens as I walked along. I bobbed over the railway bridge and into the wood.

New Moss Wood

It was relatively quiet in the wood despite the songs of the robins, blackbirds and chiffchaffs. The poor fieldcraft of a sleepy old man no doubt a contributory factor.. A pheasant called from the field margins and I disturbed a couple of wrens but the rest of the birds were dead quiet, even the woodpigeons clambered round the treetops in silence. Blue tits, great tits and chaffinches foraged in the trees while blackbirds and dunnocks fossicked around in the undergrowth. A couple of greenfinches flew in and sang in one of the clearings. The sun brought out butterflies: peacocks flitted about the rides, small tortoiseshells checked out the hedge garlicks and honesty and a brimstone fed on the dandelions by the car park.

Cadishead Moss 

Buzzard, Cadishead Moss

The dry and dusty New Moss Road was a distinct contrast to yesterday's Lordship Road. It was busy today with builders' lorries and tractors, I usually nearly have it to myself. Goldfinches and house sparrows flitted between the hedgerows, twittering and chirping almost incessantly as they did. A buzzard soared over the fields, over the motorway another soared over the donkey paddock while another was perched on a fencepost. A couple of hundred yards down three buzzards soared around each other high over the fields. I think our local buzzard population may have bounced back after the twentieth century slump.

Buzzards, Chat Moss

Little Woolden Moss 

I walked into Little Woolden Moss. There were no dragonflies about but they'll have plenty to eat when they emerge. Wrens and a willow warbler sang in the birch scrub. At first sight there wasn't a lot on the open moss but first sight can be deceiving, there was plenty about albeit mostly distant. Pairs of lapwings were being bothered by a marsh harrier over by the fields and a kestrel hovered high over the rough. Pairs of Canada geese, oystercatchers and more lapwings loafed on the bunds on the pools. A few mallards and black-headed gulls dozed in corners of a couple of the pools. There were only a couple of meadow pipits about, that'll soon change. I walked through to the car park where robins, blackbirds and chiffchaffs sang in the trees and a reed bunting foraged in the hawthorns.

Little Woolden Moss 

Chat Moss by Four Lanes End 

Linnet, Chat Moss

It was a quiet walk through Four Lanes End and down Twelve Yards Road. A couple of chaffinches and a singing linnet were in the trees by the crossroads and a skylark sang over one of the turf fields. There were woodpigeons in the fields if you looked hard enough and four stock doves flew by. Halfway down I disturbed a flock of linnets and they sat twittering in the hawthorns almost drowning out the songs of a couple of greenfinches. Lapwings were holding territories and display-flying on the barley fields along the path and I was pleased to see the kestrels occupying their usual nest.

Cutnook Lane 

The walk down Cutnook Lane was accompanied by the songs of blackbirds and robins and yet another buzzard soared low over the treetops. Pairs of mallards dozed on the bank of the drain and coots squabbled on the fishery pool. I was feeling the lack of sleep as I walked up the slope and over the motorway and was relieved only to have to wait five minutes for the bus into Irlam and the train home.

Chat Moss