Mosses

Great spotted woodpecker, Chat Moss

It was cloudier, and distinctly windier, today but still a fine Autumn day begging to have a walk taken in it. I got the train into Irlam and headed up Astley Road for a walk on the mosses.

Astley Road was busy today. I always make a point of stepping into the roadside to give vehicles a fighting chance on the abominable road surface. There's nothing like ten tons of fully loaded lorry driving past on a narrow road and sloping 30° in your direction for remembering all those prayers you forgot at school. Having the wind in my ears meant I had to keep stopping to look over my shoulder for approaching traffic so I probably missed a lot of passing birdlife.

In between times I had a go at picking out the runners and riders in a large mixed tit flock in the hedgerows. I gave up trying to count in the end, there were "many" long-tailed tits with a fair few blue tits and a few great tits. This time of year as the wind blows loose leaves out of the trees the disruptive colourings and jerky flitting about of titmice makes them conspicuous as a group but almost impossible to pin down as individuals. Which, of course, is the whole point of their massing together as a flock.

Irlam Moss 

I was hoping to see some finches but I had to wait until I got to Prospect Grange to find the first goldfinch and chaffinch in the hedgerow, and it was just the one goldfinch and chaffinch. I'm having a shockingly bad year for yellowhammers and didn't improve my performance any with them today. A large flock of black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs were following the plough a few fields away with half a dozen carrion crows. I'd kept seeing a buzzard rising and falling above the farmstead next to the motorway, I got to the motorway and found it was three buzzards, one on the wing and two noisy juveniles in the trees.

Pied wagtail, Chat Moss
A white wagtail would have pale grey flanks without the sooty brown tones of this bird. It looked bright white to the eye in the sunlight.

It was quiet over the motorway with just a few carrion crows in the turf fields, a handful of woodpigeons flying about and a few pied wagtails on the roofs in the turf company yard. One of them was pale enough for me to look closely at to make sure I wasn't overlooking a white wagtail on passage. Red admirals were being blown about the roadside by the breeze. The birdwatching picked up a little on the approach to Four Lanes End with a few great tits, wrens and blackbirds in the trees, pheasants in the fields and another buzzard flying by.

Twelve Yards Road 

The wind had picked up and had blown most of the cloud cover away. I decided to forgo the bleak majesty of Little Woolden Moss and headed up the path that runs parallel to Twelve Yards Road to see what was about on the pools and woods. A great-spotted woodpecker was working the telegraph poles by the road, starting near the bottom of each, working its way up to the top then flying to the next. A dead tree's a dead tree whatever use man makes of it. A flock of over thirty stock doves in the field by the road was good to see. Less good to see was that Twelve Yards Road is breaking up almost as badly as Astley Road.

Black darter (left) and common darter, Chat Moss

Joining the path I was astonished by the number of black darters that were about, mostly sunning themselves on rocks and nettle tops, a few flitting around with their wings shimmering blue in the sunlight. They actually have clear wings but in flight the wings interfere with the light when the sun is below the yardarm to give a shimmering rich blue effect that I haven't seen in other dragonflies. A few common darters were also sunning themselves, the black darters getting quite stroppy about it but always giving way when challenged for the best place due to their slightly smaller size. A few red admirals fluttered about the nettle beds.

I thought the mixed tit flock in Astley Road was hard to unpick, it was a doddle compared the one working its way through the wind-rattled birch scrub along the path. There were long-tailed tits, some blue tits, at least one great tit and at least one goldcrest. The wrens and robins kept undercover.

Snipe, Chat Moss

The pools were quiet, the mallards and moorhens seen but not heard. A dabchick fished in one corner of the big pool behind the birches while a dozen snipe dozed on a little island and two little egrets hunted along the far bank. Having already been surprised by the number of darters I wasn't surprised by the Southern hawkers patrolling the goat willows and the couple of common hawkers skimming the tops of the fading Himalayan balsams.

Southern Hawker, Chat Moss

I turned and headed down the path to the junction between Cutnook Lane and Twelve Yards Road. The pools at the side of the path seemed to be completely deserted, the trees on the other side were busy with another mixed tit flock.

Heading towards Cutnook Lane 

I  wondered if I should turn and carry on down to Barton Moss but my knees said no so I walked down Cutnook Lane and bumped into yet another mixed tit flock by the fishery, this one a sizeable concern with at least a couple of dozen long-tailed tits and quite a few blue tits and great tits and a couple of goldcrests. All the chiffchaffs of Summer seem to have moved on. As I approached the motorway a flock of black-headed gulls billowed over the motorway, made a racket as they flew low over the stables and paddocks then flew back whence they came.

Over the motorway and I got the 100 to Irlam Station and made my way home. The birdwatching hadn't been spectacular but the afternoon had had its moments.