Irlam

Common scoter, Irlam Locks 

The blackbird in my back garden started singing at 04:15. His rival at the railway station felt the need to rise to the challenge for half an hour then packed it in until sunrise. The rest of the songsters bided their time, the wren kicked in on the dot of six o'clock and a song thrush five minutes later. The great tits, woodpigeons and collared dove waited until sunrise had been and gone. The local robins are skipping the dawn chorus completely, limiting themselves to a few bursts of "keep off the grass" at midday when they're having a breather.

Manchester Ship Canal 

A female common scoter had turned up at Irlam Locks and it would have been rude not to say hello to her. I got the 256 into Flixton and walked down Irlam Road to the locks. The hedgerows were fizzing with house sparrows; robins, great tits, blackbirds and chiffchaffs sang in the trees and a couple of dozen sand martins were buzzing over the road. Spring was in the air and after yesterday's weather I found myself overdressed for it.

Common scoter, Irlam Locks 

Common scoter, Irlam Locks 

The scoter was contentedly drifting about on the Ship Canal just above the locks, easily viewable from the dirt path that is the end of Irlam Road. Every so often she dived for a while, staying down a lot longer than a tufted ducks should do. If she caught anything she must have eaten it underwater, she didn't bring anything up with her. For a while she was joined by a juvenile cormorant which had a couple of fishing forays before swimming off upstream.

Sand martins, Irlam Locks 

Sand martins, Irlam Locks 

The sand martins settled on the telephone wires for a bit of a preen but we're too skittish to stay still for long and they were soon back to hawking over the water treatment works. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls fussed about the filtration pans with a similar number of magpies. These were the first black-headed gulls I'd seen all week. I looked for pied wagtails and didn't find any but there was a grey wagtail skipping about on the grass by the pans.

Heron, cormorants and pigeons, Irlam Locks 

Looking out onto the canal as I crossed the locks I could see half a dozen cormorants fishing in the deep water by the main lock. A couple more sat on the lock in the company of a heron. Further out pairs of mallards and great crested grebes dozed in midwater and a mute swan cruised by the bank under the railway bridge.

Heron, Irlam Locks 

Crossing over into Irlam I wasn't sure what to do next, if anything at all. I could just cut through Prince's Park and get the bus home or I could carry on for a walk over the Irlam mosses though that was probably overambitious given I was feeling the effects of an hour and a half's sleep. On a whim I turned right instead of left and followed the path along Cadishead Way which, for once, was unusually quiet so I could hear the wrens and chiffchaffs singing in the trees.

River Irwell 

I crossed the road onto the cut into Ferry Road. A stretch of the old course of the Irwell forms a buffer between Cadishead Way and the housing estate. A couple of drake tufted ducks drifted about, a pair of mallards dabbled, a moorhen fossicked about on the bank. More chiffchaffs, robins and great tits sang.

Irlam Community Woodland 

On the other side of the path was a gateway I hadn't noticed before. I passed through it out of curiosity, turned a curve and found myself in the Irlam Community Woodland. A confession: I'd entirely forgotten this. Last time I was here it was a stretch of rubbish-strewn waste too wet to build on that had the first few unfeathered maidens planted on it. That was a while back. The planting out had been done well with a thick band of trees along the old river course as a sound baffle between Cadishead Way and the paths and curling sweeps of trees forming a mixture of woods and wide open glades. 

Chiffchaff, Irlam Community Woodland 

I heard seven singing chiffchaffs as I walked along which shows how well the landscape works for warblers, all told it's only a quarter of a mile stretch of land. There were similar numbers of singing wrens, great tits and robins, a few blackbirds, dunnocks and a blackcap so it's quite productive. My first speckled wood of the year skittered along the path and there were small tortoiseshells and peacocks fluttering about the soon-to-be nettle patches.

Irlam Community Woodland 

I followed the path round past a large pond which, oddly, had no waterfowl on it, not even a moorhen. I got to the gate on the North side of the woodland and found that whatever the maps told me the paths didn't go anywhere so I went back and completed the circuit of the paths and back onto Ferry Road, with a pair of grey wagtails bouncing round the rooftops before flying over towards the river, and thence into Irlam for the buses home.

Irlam Community Woodland 

I needed a nice surprise and got one. Nice when it happens.