Horwich

Raven, Georges Road

The recent flurry of Spring migrants has eased my year list anxieties more than somewhat so I'm starting to catch up with walks I've not yet got round to this year. I haven't had a wander round anywhere in Horwich so I thought I'd head that way today as it was a fine Saturday, I wanted to avoid the crowds and there's enough space up there to avoid them.

Bottom o'th Moor 

I set out later than planned, spending part of the morning on an unscheduled bit of home handymanning (something I show a flair for being bad at) and I decided to wait until lunchtime to set off. The 25 bus running very late worked in my favour for once as the X22 was sitting ready to go when we arrived at the Trafford Centre. I forget that the X22 is a thing, which is a pity as the journey to Bolton only takes five minutes more than the train does from Manchester. I had a two minute wait for the 125 and got off at Bottom o'th Moor. Rooks and jackdaws fed in the fields and the rookery at the side of the road was particularly noisy.

Moorgate Fishery 

I had a nosy on the little fishery by Chorley Old Road. There were a few anglers on and only the one each of Muscovy duck and mallard were sleeping on the bank.

Carrion crow, Georges Road 
As you can see, I find brightly sunlit carrion crows fiendishly difficult to photograph 

I walked over to George's Road and started the walk up the hill. Willow warblers sang from the trees by the fields and a chiffchaff sang in the woods by Curly's Fishery. Wrens, robins, blackbirds and chaffinches added to the soundscape and a blackcap sang in the garden by the quarry works entrance. 

Welsh poppies, Georges Road 

Magpies and carrion crows foraged in the fields and a pair of pied wagtails caught insects disturbed by the horses. More jackdaws, rooks and carrion crows flew overhead and a pair of carrion crows chased a sparrowhawk off the hills and into town. I was just approaching Wilderswood when a pair of ravens flew overhead, wheeling in close formation before heading up the hill. I was struck by the complete lack of hirundines. I would have expected at least a few swallows.

Raven, Georges Road
The other of the pair

I saw the number of cars parked by the entrance to Wilderswood and the number of figures walking up the hill towards the Pike and I decided to take the unfashionable woodland path. It turned out to be a good call, I only met five people over the next hour.

Wilderswood 

Chiffchaffs and willow warblers sang in abundance and there were blackcaps singing in thickets and whitethroats in clearings. A cuckoo sang from somewhere in the distance and a pheasant called from the depths of some bracken. 

Wilderswood
Joining a holloway

The wood had been badly affected by a spruce beetle infestation and a lot of trees had to be cut down at the beginning of last year. This opening up of parts of the woodland has been filled in by cow parsley, bilberries and bracken and lots of young oaks, beeches and hawthorns, not all planted by the Forestry Commission. A couple of jays quietly foraging in the bushes probably had a hand in some of this. Brimstones and large white butterflies skittered along the rides.

Willow warbler, Wilderswood 

I carried on wandering round and eventually joined one of the pack horse trails that lead down to Brownlow Road. Willow warblers outnumbered chiffchaffs along this stretch, though there were plenty of both. 

Wilderswood
Old pack horse trails converging into the stream that eventually becomes Brownlow Road 

The very top of Brownlow Road is effectively a stream bed, the water pouring downhill along the old pack trail before suddenly diving into the stream cut deep by the side of the road just by the alpaca farm. This damp woodland edge suits speckled wood butterflies and there were lots of them, and where there is an abundance of speckled woods there is often an abundance of wrens and so there were.

By Brownlow Road 

Where the stream reached the houses on Brownlow Road it was thickly lined with comfrey and alkanet and looked very picturesque. Chaffinches and blackcaps sang in the trees and blue tits and great tits flitted about the undergrowth. I wandered down to Chorley Old Road and got the 125 back to Bolton and struck lucky again with the connection with the X22 back to the Trafford Centre.

Wilderswood 

Definitely a nice only-just-off-the-beaten-path walk with plenty of birdlife about.