Mersey Valley

Cob Kiln Wood 

After a couple of stressful days I was torn between wanting a lazy Saturday and the fact it was a warm Summer's day out there. In the end I compromised with a bit of an afternoon toddle.

Walking into Cob Kiln Wood from Torbay Road

I walked down to Cob Kiln Wood where a multitude of robins muttered at each other in the undergrowth. As I got to the pylon clearing a mixed tit flock appeared. At first I thought it was only a family of long-tailed tits with a couple of goldfinches and goldcrests in tow. The blue tits and great tits were about three trees behind the vanguard and in no particular hurry to catch up with it. A great spotted woodpecker flew over the river as I got to the bridge and landed in the tall woodland behind the pylons.

Banky Meadow 

The lane to Banky Meadow was very wet and muddy underfoot so I was concentrating as much on my footsteps as the birds in the woodland. Dunnocks, robins and wrens fidgeted about in the undergrowth and it seems that all the blackbirds I've not been seeing lately were laying waste to the haws in the bushes and trees, there were at least a couple of dozen and they all seemed to be males. 

I could hear mallards and coots as they called from the hidden pond near the water treatment works. Ring-necked parakeets were making a racket coming in to early roost while woodpigeons quietly went about their business and a buzzard loafed in a sycamore by one of the fields. It was a while before I bumped into a mixed tit flock — blue, great and long-tailed this time with a great spotted woodpecker shadowing their progress.

I walked down into Ashton on Mersey and called it quits. The next bus going anywhere was the 19 to Altrincham so I got that and headed for home by a circuitous route with a couple of mosquito bites on my hand to remind me of my walk.