Wigan flashes

Canada geese, tufted ducks and black-headed gull, Horrocks Flash

There's a distinct difference in our dawn chorus this year compared to previous ones and that's the lack of warblers. A complete absence of a garden warbler and the blackcap moving on after the beginning of May coincided with the removal of some shrubs at the railway station a few doors down. The robin's keeping a low profile lately which I hope means he's being kept busy with hungry mouths. This hasn't stopped the wren, which I know has a brood to feed, keeping singing up to lunchtime nearly every day. Today's dawn chorus surprise was a passing Mediterranean gull.

I keep wondering why I'm so listless lately. I suspect that hearing the dawn chorus so frequently has a hand in it, a consequence of hay fever as much as habitual insomnia. On the plus side it means I get to see the hedgehogs and foxes more often than I would do.

It was another very bright day and seeing as the trains are on strike again I thought I'd take a trip out to the Wigan flashes, something I do rarely because although there are some splendid walks around there they're a bugger to get to from our way. Today's incentive was a spotted crake that's been heard singing from the Horrocks Flash. I've never seen a spotted crake, the likelihood of my seeing a spotted crake this time was close to zero but what the hell, give it a go.

Common blue damselfly, Horrocks Flash

The 126 was twenty minutes late, not unexpected given the road closure in Boothstown for tree-felling. The M60 moved at snail's pace up to the junction with the M62, it took us more than five minutes to get over the Barton Bridge. I began to wonder whether there'd be time to get into Wigan and walk the flashes before the Christmas lights went up. Perhaps I should just go over to Pennington Flash to see if I could get any better photos of the black terns. Or Bickershaw Country Park's on the way, I haven't been yet this year. Or that walk along the Bridgewater Canal between Boothstown and Astley. Anyway, I stuck to it and got the number 9 bus from Leigh into Platt Bridge, walked the length of Victoria Road and joined the Leeds and Liverpool Canal as it passed under the railway bridge.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

There were damselflies a-plenty along the canal. Banded demoiselles fluttered around the hedgerow by the railway bridge. Common blue damselflies zipped across the towpath. I was sure there were a few azure damselflies about but only the common blue damsels were staying still long enough to be identified. A handful of blue-tailed damselflies danced around a bramble bush.

By Horrocks Flash 

There's a bit of woodland between Horrocks Flash and the railway line. I've not been this way before so I had a bit of an explore. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and a coal tit sang in the trees, wrens from the undergrowth. Blackbirds and robins fossicked about in the bushes. An apparently dark bird quietly harvesting willow seeds turned out to be a female bullfinch; her mate kept to the shadows, too, but was less successfully anonymous. For some reason they were being closely followed by a young robin. Perhaps it was confused by the red of the cock bullfinch's breast, perhaps the bullfinches' feeding disturbs a lot of small insects.

Black-headed gulls and lapwings, Horrocks Flash

Horrocks Flash is quite small and it was fairly quiet today. A few black-headed gulls fussed about, mallards, Canada geese lapwings and tufted ducks dozed and a pair of oystercatchers were uncharacteristically silent. Unlike the sedge warblers in the ditches by the wood, the reed warblers in the reedbeds by the flash or the Cetti's warbler in the brambles on the other side of the canal.

Black-headed gull and oystercatchers, Horrocks Flash

Heron, Horrocks Flash

A flock of swifts hawked high over the flash. Lesser black-backs flew by but didn't stop, unlike a heron which flew in and parked itself in the corner of the reeds. I was a bit baffled by a crowd of female banded demoiselle fluttering about in one of the willow trees by the towpath, even though I know what they look like it doesn't immediately register with me when I see them. They are rather lovely.

Banded demoiselle, Horrocks Flash

I carried on down the canal. A pair of swallows hawked low over the water, drifting on towards Platt Bridge. Dunnocks and willow warblers joined the singing blackcaps and chiffchaffs. Sedge warblers and whitethroats sang from Bryn Flash on the other side of the canal. A few azure damselflies settled long enough for me to identify them and a flying pencil rattling past me at head height could only be an emperor dragonfly.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal, approaching Moss Bridge

I crossed Moss Bridge and skirted Scotman's Flash where a few dozen herring gulls and lesser black-backs were loafing with the Canada geese and mallards. I was watching an odd synchronisation of a reed bunting preening at the top of a reed stem while a reed warbler sang at its base when I noticed a dark shape flying across the reedbeds twenty yards away. It was a hobby, scarcely stopping as it caught a dragonfly and carried on its way over the flash.

Scotman's Flash 

For me the problem with the Wigan Flashes is that you always end up with a quarter of an hour's walk through a housing estate to get to a bus stop. I didn't fancy a drag through Poolstock so I headed through Hawkley and got the Leigh bus from Marius Bridge. It was still only teatime and I seriously considered getting off for a wander round Pennington Flash along the way. It's as well I didn't, it was half eight when I got back to feed the cat.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Moss Bridge