Mosses

Short-eared owls, Chat Moss

I'd slept heavily after spending most of the previous evening asleep so I had nothing in principle against lolling about the house being trampled all over by the cat, except the being trampled all over by the cat bit. But I had a new pair of boots needing something doing with them. So I had my lunch, got the train to Irlam and set off up Astley Road for a stroll on the Salford mosses.

It was a grey sort of a day but surprisingly mild for early January and the walking was good. The Zinnia Drive spadgers chunnered quietly in the privet hedges. The mixed tit flock moving through the hedgerows on Astley Road were easier to hear than see despite all the bare twigs on the hawthorns.

Irlam Moss 

A flock of a hundred and something fieldfares were feeding on the barley stubble field by Roscoe Road with a similar number of starlings, a dozen or so blackbirds and a few redwings. 

Red-legged partridges, Irlam Moss

Passing the Jack Russell's gate another mixed tit flock included a couple of goldcrests which spent most of the time chasing each other about the bushes. A couple of pheasants stalked the fields, a female kestrel sat on the telegraph line and I almost missed the covey of a dozen red-legged partridges on the far side of the field near the farmhouse.

Over the motorway it seemed a lot quieter until I got to the cleared turf field opposite Trophy Lawn Turf. About three hundred starlings bustled about, a grey wagtail foraged with a couple of dozen pied wagtails near the road and a couple of dozen lapwings browsed the far end of the field with another flock of fieldfares.

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

At Four Lanes End I turned left with the intention of touching base with Little Woolden Moss. I hadn't gone far when I noticed a couple of marsh harriers upsetting the jackdaws going to roost over on the far side of the field. A couple of chaps were already watching the field, I mentioned the harriers. "One of them was being chased by a short-eared owl about twenty minutes ago," I was told. So I kept my eyes peeled, just in case. Even so, I was surprised when one floated up and started hunting over the rough grass, settling on the ground a few times and giving excellent, if a bit distant, views.

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

Little Woolden Moss 

I walked on into Little Woolden Moss, just to touch base for ten minutes or so as the sun lowered behind the clouds. There wasn't a lot about, just a pair of great tits in the willows and eighteen carrion crows congregating round the far bank on the pool. I had one eye on the time, I didn't want to be walking down Cutnook Lane in the dark, so I just had a quick look round and headed back to Four Lanes End.

Stonechat, Chat Moss
She posed for the camera, dropped the berry, went down into the brambles for it then settled back into the pose. I said thank you with a couple of bits of walnut.

A pair of stonechats were busy in the ditch by the road, the male striking posed on dead branches while the female had her supper. Wrens and robins rattled in the undergrowth while woodpigeons flew into the conifers to roost.

Short-eared owls, Chat Moss

I found the short-eared owl again and no sooner had I done so when another appeared. They sparred for a few minutes before returning to neutral corners.

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

I watched one of the owls as it did a circuit of the field then set off for a twilight walk down Twelve Yards Road. I was dead chuffed to have seen two short-eared owls this afternoon, I was astonished to find a third hunting the field by the road. That one disappeared into the field of willow scrub.

Chat Moss

A couple of kestrels flew in to roost as I reached the top of Cutnook Lane. Blackbirds and wrens fidgeted and called in the trees and the coots on the fishery had one last fight before settling down for the night. Crossing over the motorway I'd just missed the 100 to the Trafford Centre but only had five minutes to wait for the one going the other way to Irlam Station. Late afternoon walks across Chat Moss in Winter can be very rewarding.