Amberswood

Amberswood Lake

The weather forecast promised the rain would only be light this afternoon so I got the 132 from the Trafford Centre for a walk around Amberswood.

Walmersley Park 

I got off at the stop after Amberswood for a short detour. I keep going by Walmersley Park, on the other side of the railway, I thought I should have a quick nosy at it. There isn't a great deal of it and from a birdwatcher's perspective the most interesting part is the wooded pool in the corner between the railway line and the play area. A moorhen fidgeted about the reeds while a mixed tit flock including at least one goldcrest bounced about in the birch trees by the path.

Walmersley Park 

I'd congratulated myself on keeping my boots dry. I'd celebrated too soon: I took a short cut across the mown grass past the play area to the road, three steps along the grass parted and I was up to my shins in muddy water.

Amberswood 

I walked down to Amberswood and started strolling along the shared cycleway as the clouds rolled in and an almost twilit gloom descended even though it was an hour and a half before sunset. The hedgerows either side were busy with small birds: a couple of mixed tit flocks bounced by, one including goldcrests the other coal tits; goldfinches twittered in the treetops and there were rather a lot of blackbirds. Woodpigeons had been thin on the ground on the way over, there were plenty enough of them in the trees here.

Amberswood Lake 

The sun came out and it started pouring down. This wasn't so bad in the shelter of the trees, it was a bit grim out in the open as I walked by the lake. A raft of a dozen tufted ducks dozed and preened in the middle of the lake. I tried my best to turn them into scaups or ring-necked ducks but they were all tufties. A couple of black-headed gulls flew in but didn't settle, a few mallards flew in and went straight into the reeds. The juvenile great crested grebes shone bright white in this strange light. As I trudged away a Cetti's warbler started singing in the reeds by the path.

Low Hall 

It was nudging sunset when I headed over to Low Hall. A mute swan browsed the edge of the pond while a heron lurked in the reeds. Robins and wrens sang in the undergrowth while half a dozen blackbirds and a song thrush flew into the trees to roost.

Instead of walking into Platt Bridge for a bus to Wigan or Leigh I walked up Liverpool Road into Hindley for the 132 back to the Trafford Centre. I'll have to remember to get off at Hindley in future, the walk to Low Hall would be better at the beginning of a walk rather than the end and the other end of Amberswood is dead handy for the buses.