Cutacre

Kestrel

I'd finished the errands of the morning and was on the 132 heading Wigan way when I remembered that Cutacre Country Park was on my "to visit" list and I'd be going through Tyldesley, just a short walk away. So I got off at Tyldesley Town Hall and headed North.

Starling, Cumbermere Lane 

Half a dozen streets later I was walking through open country along Cumbermere Lane. At first it was quiet, just woodpigeons, carrion crows and magpies in the fields and red admirals and speckled woods about the hedgerows. 

Cumbermere Lane 

A couple of hundred yards down the lane swallows started to hawk above the treetops and chiffchaffs, robins and goldfinches rummaged around the hawthorns. It's a pity I don't know anyone who makes hawthorn jelly, it's a bumper crop this year.

Common darter, Cumbermere Lane 

Passing the kennels and cattery there were more swallows overhead and house sparrows about the buildings. Chaffinches and greenfinches were calling in the trees and the begging calls of a young buzzard floated over the fields. Common darters zipped about the path and a couple of migrant hawkers patrolled the tops of the hedges. I've not really noticed that ivy has much of a scent but what there was of it mingled with the scent of Himalayan balsam to make a very agreeable smell.

Mute swan, herring gulls, black-headed gulls, tufted duck and moorhen

I went over the railway bridge into Cutacre. The first thing I spotted was the lake I can see from the train as it approaches Atherton. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls and a few herring gulls and lesser black-backs were making all the noise. Half a dozen each of Canada geese, mallards and tufted ducks cruised about with coots and moorhens while a mute swan and a couple of gadwall mooched about the island. I almost missed the dabchick in the corner.

Kestrel

I had a meandering wander, the paths curving round the open countryside. Charms of goldfinches flitted about thistle tops and waves of swallows passed overhead, mostly in twos and threes, occasionally a small flock of a couple of dozen or so. A kestrel came in close and hovered just overhead before moving over to some rough further downhill. Common hawkers patrolled the small pools that were dotted about and more common darters zipped about the paths.

Centaury

Here and there there was a patch of birch scrub, the treetops busy with goldfinches and small flocks of blue tits and long-tailed tits moving through the scrub. Chiffchaffs and willow warblers called from the trees and I got them right most of the time.

Cutacre Country Park 

I followed the rise behind Logistics North (yes, really) with yet more swallows billowing over the grassy mounds. The trees around some old farm buildings attracted jays and migrant hawkers and a Southern hawker patrolled a small stretch of hedgerow.

Cutacre Country Park 

I followed the path along to Salford Road at Hulton Lane Ends and got the 20 back to the Trafford Centre. It had been a very pleasant walk and the weather had behaved itself nicely.