Byrom Hall Wood

Byrom Hall Wood 

As I contemplated the pouring rain on a bank holiday Monday morning I could at least be reassured that some eternal verities still prevail. I'd decided against going to the seaside and wasn't much in favour of anywhere that might be crowded. I noticed that there was a report of a juvenile black-necked grebe on a pool on Lightshaw Hall Flashes near Golborne, somewhere that's on my to-visit list so I headed thataway.

As I waited for the 126 at the Trafford Centre I watched a buzzard scare the pigeons on the Peel Building. I've not seen one here for a few months, I was starting to worry.

At Leigh I got the 588 to Lowton and walked down to Lowton Road rather than wait another twenty minutes for the number 10 which runs down there. I walked past Golborne School and into the new housing estate. I headed for what looked like a road into the Lightshaw Hall estate and was confronted by a big pair of double gates. I noticed the local dog walkers weren't paying any attention to them so I followed suit.

Google Maps' directions to the pool with the grebe on it were nonsense so I dismissed the idea and had an explore. I passed through a scrap of woodland which had a charm of fifty or more goldfinches twittering in the treetops. Every so often they'd take flight, settle in a rough field of thistles and almost immediately fly back to the trees for no apparent reason. A common hawker patrolled the lower reaches of the trees and made identification a challenge as it zipped into leaf cover every time I got the bins onto it. Further along robins, great tits, wrens and chiffchaffs made themselves known from deep cover.

Lightshaw Meadows 

The path opened out into a freshly-cut hay meadow. I followed the noise of mallards to a flooded corner where a dozen of them loafed among drowned trees with a couple of moorhens.

There wasn't a path leading out into the further meadows so I retraced my steps and followed the path along the edge of the meadow and crossed a fast-flowing brook into Byrom Hall Wood.

More chiffchaffs, great tits and wrens called from the trees. I traversed an incredibly muddy path and found a metalled path that I decided to stick on. I have a habit of finding incredibly muddy paths when I'm wearing clean trousers. A family of long-tailed tits were virtually impossible to find, I could hear them calling but could only find the blue tits travelling with them.

I noticed one of those paths known only to cats and kids and, on a whim, decided to follow it. I'd only gone fifty yards when the path ended at what looked like a water treatment works on the other side of the brook. I could see a pool so had a scan round and was astonished to find that the first bird I could see through the wire fence was a juvenile black-necked grebe asleep in midwater. Mallards, a couple of gadwalls, coots and dabchicks loafed and dozed on the water and brown hawkers patrolled the reeds at the sides. A willow warbler and a chiffchaff gave me the opportunity to try and compare and contrast their calls with the willow warbler being the slightly more upbeat.

Byrom Hall Wood 

I found a way onto another path which became well-nigh invisible and I startled a spaniel as I emerged from a thicket of brambles. I had better luck with another family of long-tailed tits and the blue tits, great tits and chiffchaffs tagging along for the ride. 

A Southern hawker patrolled the trees along the metalled path and goldfinches and greenfinches twittered about the treetops as I walked by. I walked through and emerged on Slag Lane. I had twenty minutes to wait for the 588 back to Leigh so I wandered into Plank Lane for a bit of exercise and caught it there.

That was a nice little walk I didn't know about in yet another of the coalfield woodlands.