Canal walk

Jay, Boothstown

August was starting with potentially the only warm, sunny day of the week though a heavy, muggy period over lunchtime boded ill. I didn't want to be messing about with long rail journeys and I wasn't sure which of the umpteen options I was going to choose for a walk and I didn't fancy a long traipse anywhere and the clock was ticking and yadda yadda yadda. It's when I'm in these maungy indecisive moods that I most need to go for a walk. 

I headed over to the Trafford Centre to get a bus over to Leigh for a walk round Pennington Flash but the roadworks in Astley and Boothstown are still playing hob with the buses and I had a long wait ahead of me. The young peregrine still sitting on the sign on the Beyond building was a consolation prize. The next bus out anywhere promising was the 20 to Bolton, I could get off in Monton and walk up past Worsley Woods, or at Worsley for a walk down the canal into Astley, or Walkden for Blackleach Country Park, or… can you see a pattern here?

Hence it was I turfed myself off the bus at Worsley and set off for a walk along the canal as the clouds parted a bit and the wind freshened the air quite a lot. The birdwatching along the first half-mile stretch was hard work because there was a party of strimmers and leaf-blowers walking up and down the towpath by RHS Worsley which I could hear from the bus stop quarter of a mile away. None of them were wearing ear defenders so I suspect they had no idea how much noise they were making. Every so often I could hear a woodpigeon, a goldfinch or a chiffchaff but most of the time there was just an industrial backdrop to an overhead passage of squadrons of woodpigeons and occasional lesser black-backs. 

Bittern Pits Wood 

The noise was the more galling because it was evident from all the twitching leaves that there was a mixed tit flock working its way through the edge of Bittern Pits Wood by the side of the canal and all I could pick up was a chiffchaff that happened to show itself as it flew between trees.

Bridgewater Canal 

It got quieter on the approach to Bridgewater Marina and I could pick up the goldfinches, carrion crows and magpies in the trees. For all the bad weather we've had the shoals of roaches in the canal were still coming up for air every so often. The first dragonfly of the day was a brown hawker patrolling a stand of Himalayan balsam. There were lots of butterflies about, mostly large whites with a few red admirals, peacocks, meadow browns and gatekeepers along the towpath to make me feel like it was still Summer. Holly blues flitted about the treetops and much higher still the occasional swallow or swift would pass by. A mixed tit flock was mostly long-tailed tits with a few great tits and a robin. It was just the walk I needed, even if the birdwatching was a bit light.

Roaches, Boothstown

At the bridge over to Moorings a path looked like it might head down towards Botany Bay Wood but turned out to be no go. No matter, there was a path fringed with trees that ran parallel to the canal that looked interesting and didn't look like it would be busy with cyclists so I wandered down that. Speckled woods chased each other through the nettles and a family of jays chased each other through the hedgerows and around the gate that barred any further progress. A willow warbler called from a tree in the field beyond.

Jay, Boothstown

So I traced my way back and carried on down the canal. A common tern flying past just over my head was a nice surprise, as was the migrant hawker patrolling the trees on the opposite bank and being mobbed by speckled woods.

Bridgewater Canal 

Approaching the bridge for Vicar's Hall Lane blackbirds and wrens were busy in the trees on both banks and black-headed gulls and a heron flew down the canal. 

The plan had been to walk into Astley Green and get the 129 either back into Boothstown or stay on to Farnsworth and pick up one of the Trafford Centre buses there. I checked how I was doing and found that I'd just missed the bus and if I carried on to Astley Green I'd have three quarters of an hour to wait for the next. The other options were to cross over onto Vicar's Hall Lane and walk through the new housing estate into Boothstown or continue on to Astley Green then walk the extra mile and pick up a bus near Leigh Cemetery. Dear reader, I got the bus from Boothstown and saved myself getting wet half an hour later.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a dreadful day for weather, I might just get a train ticket to anywhere and see what happens.