Mosses

Meadow pipit. Little Woolden Moss

After a night of itchy and scratchy eyes and runny nose and a couple of swollen fingers where I wasn't as quick as I thought I was flicking off flying nibblers I decided to wait until late afternoon before settling off for a walk on the Salford mosses. I got the 100 from the Trafford Centre and it was quarter to five when I started wandering along Cutnook Lane.

Long-tailed tit, Chat Moss

The wrens, chiffchaffs and blackcaps were in full song. Woodpigeons fed on the fields by the stables and lapwings, magpies and mistle thrushes on the turf fields across the road. The hedgerows were busy with families of titmice, including a family of about twenty long-tailed tits. Overhead the clear blue sky was empty save the occasional passing gull: a couple of black-headed gulls, a few lesser black-backs and a single adult Mediterranean gull.

Chat Moss 

I carried on past Twelve Yards Road, the chiffchaffs giving way to willow warblers as the mature trees gave way to birch and willow scrub. Speckled woods and four-spotted chasers danced around the path verges and my first common hawker of the year patrolled the willow margins. 

I don't think we appreciate nettles enough
Chat Moss

The birch scrub had obscured most of the pools on the way up, I could hear Canada geese and mallards and saw a few broad-bodied chasers zipping around. Turning and walking parallel to Twelve Yards Road carrion crows and lapwings rummaged around the peat fields and a cuckoo sang from somewhere over by the railway line. Brimstones and large whites joined the speckled woods and a couple of dragonflies zipped by before I could tell if they were black-tailed or keeled skimmers.

Chat Moss 

I ducked through the trees for a look at the big pool. Canada geese, lapwings, mallards and a black-headed gull dozed, a pair of oystercatchers fed on a mud bank. Coots and moorhens had families of small chicks with them. A pair of teal dabbled in a corner on the far side. A sedge warbler joined the singing reed buntings, willow warblers and whitethroats and a curlew called as it flew low overhead.

Whitethroat, Chat Moss

As the trees thinned out the whitethroats started outnumbering the willow warblers. A family of four youngsters bounced up from the brambles in the drain to have a look at me while their parents churred at me to move along. A couple of keeled skimmers stayed still long enough for me to identify them.

Black-headed gull, Chat Moss

I turned and walked down to Twelve Yards Road. A pair of swallows twittered overhead and more black-headed gulls flew by. A couple of young kestrels were hunting in tandem over the field by Four Lanes End.

Willow warbler, Little Woolden Moss

The trees at the entrance to Little Woolden Moss were noisy with robins, blackcaps, whitethroats and willow warblers. I had a quick nosy round the reserve. Up til now I'd managed to keep to dappled shade but there's no cover out in the open moss and I felt the sun even though it was late teatime. A brief look over the westernmost pools found me some lapwings and pied wagtails. I walked back and round to have a look over the fields on Mosslands Farm to see if any yellow wagtails were about. I had no luck but there were plenty of lapwings and a couple of families of skylarks.

This young skylark gave me a long what-the-hell-is-that moment
Little Woolden Moss

I retraced my steps and wandered back towards the entrance. Families of meadow pipits bounced around the cotton grasses and heaths and willow warblers sang, appropriately enough, in the willows. Even though it was getting late common hawkers patrolled the willow margins and keeled skippers zipped over the open moss.

Whitethroat, Chat Moss

One of the young kestrels was still hunting over Four Lanes End. A small flock of house martins passed by a stopped to mob the kestrel for a couple of minutes before moving on. A heron that had been hunting in the field decided to lope off and slowly flew down Astley Road. Whitethroats, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and chaffinches sang, linnets and goldfinches twittered between fields and swallows zipped to and fro over the road. A singing lesser whitethroat was a nice bonus. The adult female kestrel was hunting over the field at the corner of Cutnook Lane.

Twelve Yards Road 

Walking down Cutnook Lane most of the titmice had settled down for the evening, a couple of great tits called from somewhere deep in the bracken. Blackcaps, robins and wrens sang from the hedgerows and song thrushes, blackbirds and mistle thrushes belted out from the trees.

Cutnook Lane 

I was glad I'd left this till teatime, it had been six miles of very warm walking. It was worth it, though, there'd been plenty to see and hear. The highlight had been watching a barn owlet clamber out of its nest and flex its wings for a few minutes before going back in. I've known for years where the nest was but I've never seen a barn owl anywhere on Chat Moss before.

The way the connections at the Trafford Centre work at nine o'clock on a Saturday I got the 250 and walked home through Lostock Park where two song thrushes were having a singing duel almost drowning out the blackbirds, robins, whitethroats and dunnocks.

Cutnook Lane