Hindley

Black-necked grebe, Low Hall 

It had been a damp morning but I needed the exercise after a lazy weekend drinking too much tea and doing a bit in the garden. I got the 132 from the Trafford Centre and headed over to Hindley, thinking that if it was going to rain I would be as well to be near some cover at Low Hall or Amberswood. I got off the bus in Hindley and walked down Liverpool Road. I was going to have a quick look at Low Hall then have a wander round Amberswood, emerging at Platt Bridge, Spring View or Manchester Road depending on the weather.

Low Hall

I keep thinking there's another way into Low Hall from Liverpool Road before you get to the car park but I can't see it. Probably as well, looking down on the paths from the road. Great tits, robins and a song thrush sang and woodpigeons clattered about in the trees, two of them upsetting a buzzard which silently flew off over Amberswood. Dunnocks and wrens, blackbirds and coal tits joined the songscape and a pheasant called from deep in the trees. I walked through the car park and over towards the pond. Chaffinches and a nuthatch were singing in the trees and male blackbirds were scrapping in the undergrowth. A Cetti's warbler sang from the reeds by the pond.

Black-necked grebe, Low Hall 

The first birds I saw on the pond were a couple of mallards and the shelduck that seems to be resident here. I was scanning the pond when I realised that there was a small bird swimming quite close to the bank. Much to my surprise the black-necked grebe that had been reported here the other day was still here. It swam a bit closer so I could have a better look at its fine breeding plumage, posed for a few photos and then I said thank you and left it alone to get on with its business. A black-necked grebe in breeding plumage is a bonny bird but I've only ever seen them from a distance.

Black-necked grebe, Low Hall 

Black-necked grebe, Low Hall 

I wandered over to Amberswood. The rain was that sort of heavy drizzle that makes it wet without putting a lot of effort into it. Despite its being quite mild my breath was condensing in the oversaturated air. It was fine for walking in. I kept to the metalled paths, which were quite wet enough thank you, the rough paths into the woods looked grim underfoot. The usual pair of mute swans mingled with a few coots and mallards, half a dozen tufted ducks drifted and dozed and the great crested grebe love triangle seemed to have resolved with the lone male keeping to the other side of the lake to the pair.

Mute swan, Amberswood Lake

By Amberswood Lake 

The titmice were very active in the trees (it was only when I got home I realised I hadn't seen any long-tailed tits among the crowds). I was pleased to bump into a willow tit, appropriately enough in a willow on the bank of the lake. Chiffchaffs and robins sang in the trees, blackbirds and song thrushes skittered about in the undergrowth and woodpigeons bounced about in the treetops. 

Amberswood 

I took one of the paths heading towards Ince and meandered my way thataway. There were lots of birds about, and very vocal too, but unlike the grebe they were phenomenally camera shy, even the robins. I tried playing peekaboo with a pair of jays but they were having none of it, nor yet the coal tits and blue tits in the trees by the path. I was trying to pick out the runners and riders in a pack of small birds in some larches by a pool when a Cetti's warbler crept up behind me, gave me a blast of song and ran away.

Jay, Amberswood 

So far I hadn't seen many finches bar a couple of chaffinches, there weren't even any goldfinches about. I wasn't altogether surprised, the alder cones looked robbed out and exhausted. I'd gone quite a fair way when a flock of siskins flew in and settled on a stand of birch trees by the path. As far as I could determine they were all siskins though half a dozen birds a few trees away could have been any small finch. I stood watching them awhile as the rain got its own back on me for not taking it seriously earlier then they moved on. About ten minutes later I bumped into presumably the same flock further down the path. They'd found another stand of birch trees behind some hawthorns and were busily attacking the catkins. There were a lot of pale and streaky female siskins in the crowd and I almost dismissed a couple of pale, streaky birds as yet more of them until I realised they had significantly shorter tails and were streaky brown, not streaky green, above. It came as a relief to get lesser redpolls onto the year list. It struck me, yet again, how the red on the forehead of a male redpoll looks black in poor light from a distance.

Amberswood 

I carried on, passing a couple of small ponds including a secluded one with a pair of mute swans and a crowd of drake mallards looking obviously surplus to requirements.

I emerged onto Warrington Road opposite the cemetery and didn't have long to wait for a number 9 to Leigh or the 126 from Leigh to the Trafford Centre. I'd had a good stroll, the weather hadn't been awful and the birdwatching had been pretty good.

Amberswood