Cob Kiln Wood

Robin

I didn't want to waste a fitfully sunny afternoon but I didn't feel particularly energetic so I went for a long dawdle round Cob Kiln Wood in the mud.

The walk down from home was punctuated by singing robins, starlings, woodpigeons and blackbirds so it was no great shock to find a couple of goldcrests chasing each other round the bushes by the entrance to the wood. They were part of a very loose mixed tit flock centred round a large family group of long-tailed tits. I stood by the bridge over Ousel Brook and watched them flitting about the alders with a small flock of goldfinches and siskins. I think that most of the alder cones have been robbed of any seed they may have had and the attraction now is overwintering insects. A pair of ring-necked parakeets announced their arrival as they landed at the top of one of the taller alder trees and a trio of goldfinches buzzed their displeasure at being evicted from the twigs they'd been working the past five minutes. The two male blackbirds that had been sparring among the branches didn't pay any attention to any of them.

Ring-necked parakeet

Walking on the path was a tad messy, the more difficult to navigate areas coinciding neatly with the more interesting noises in the hedgerow. A small flock of redwings moved on to the horse paddocks while a pair of bullfinches wheezed dismally in an elder bush. A female great spotted woodpecker silently gave me the once-over, craning her neck around a branch, then slipped her moorings and glided into the taller trees in the birch scrub. A few black-headed gulls passed overhead, as did rather more woodpigeons and magpies.

Cob Kiln Wood

Given the choice between a phenomenally claggy walk around the clearing or a phenomenally claggy walk through the clearing I opted for the latter because there's more room to stray from the path and you can wipe your boots walking through the oak leaves trapped in the clumps of comfrey. 

Cob Kiln Wood 

A family of long-tailed tits backlit bouncing through the trees were fringed with gold and I dearly wished one of them would stay still long enough for a photo. Two song thrushes had a singing contest, only stopping to shift a couple of branches along as I walked by. I kept an eye out for any birds of prey overhead but what wasn't crows, magpies or woodpigeons were lesser black-backs flying to roost.

Cob Kiln Wood 

The way out of the clearing was particularly challenging so I didn't bother with the path and followed the footsteps of somebody who had barged his way through the brambles to get to the top of the steps down to Cob Kiln Lane. I tried not to get too distracted by the blue tits and song thrush in the hedgerow by the lane.

Cob Kiln Lane
I had to wait a good five minutes to get a shot without people in it.

Cob Kiln Lane was busy with people walking dogs and toddlers in the late Winter sunshine. The hedgerows were busy with singing wrens and robins and the bashings about of woodpigeons and blackbirds feeding on ivy berries. I looked in vain for any egrets in the horse paddocks and was rewarded with a fox slinking in and out of the bottom of the hedge over on the other side.

I'd had a bit of a walk so I wandered into Urmston then off home, washing my boots in puddles as I went on my way.

Cob Kiln Lane