Mosses

Wren, Irlam Moss 

Rain, hail and cool gloomy gave an excuse for a rest from my planned jaunt yesterday, which is just as well as the trains were crap. I was all in favour of a lazy day today, too, despite its being a dry, if cool and cloudy day. So I took to my usual resort when I'm in that sort of mood and got the train into Irlam for a walk on the mosses.

Roscoe Road 

For a change I decided to walk up Roscoe Road rather than Astley Road..I only ever walk down it, I was curious to see how the landscape looked the other way round. For most of its length only one side of the road has a hedgerow and there's a stretch without any so there were fewer small birds about over here. Having said that there were plenty of singing blackbirds, robins and chiffchaffs and backing vocals from wrens, blackcaps, chaffinches and a grey partridge of all things. Pheasants called from field edges, goldfinches twittered about, crowds of woodpigeons browsed fields and song thrushes kept quiet as they rummaged round by the road. High overhead a few lesser black-backs flew by and a sparrowhawk soared on the thermals.

I joined Astley Road and looked over the field next to Prospect Grange. There was another crowd of woodpigeons and a pair of pheasants eyeing each other up from neutral corners. One pair of lapwings definitely had a nest on the go, I'm not sure if the other.

Nearly all the small birds had been happy to let me see them bobbing about by the road but were completely camera shy. The song thrush striking poses on a dung heap on the other side of the road was no exception.

Chat Moss 

I crossed the motorway and walked down to Four Lanes End. The turf fields were busy with woodpigeons, starlings and swallows. A couple of pairs of lapwings had youngsters running about and the parents spent a lot of energy making passing carrion crows feel unwelcome. The horses in the paddocks across the road were accompanied by flocks of starlings and pairs of robins and linnets. I was passing the entrance to Annabel's Farm when I said to myself that I hadn't seen any buzzards today. Right on cue a buzzard floated leisurely overhead and on towards Little Woolden Moss.

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

I'd been scanning the fields for wheatears or yellow wagtails. There were plenty of pied wagtails about but I wasn't having any luck otherwise. Just as I'd given up a wheatear bobbed up onto a cloud of earth and struck a pose. It was a large, colourful male Greenland wheatear, which is always nice to see. Just as I was getting my camera out of the bag a short-eared owl floated across the field right in front of me. I'm doing very well for them this year.

Wheatear, Chat Moss

I found myself a few more wheatears by Four Lanes End. A male kestrel was sitting on the telephone wires by the farmhouse and way over beyond the field to the North a buzzard and a marsh harrier were being bullied by crows before disappearing in opposite directions.

A chap I've seen before a couple of times in passing let on. (I'm hopeless with names, he did tell me his, my family have to wear name badges.) A lot of the fields here have been bought by Natural England and he's working with them. A lady who I think I met in Warrington when I was looking for waxwings came along and joined us and we had a bit of a chat and they told me where to keep an ear open for grasshopper warblers on Little Woolden Moss.

Moss, Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss was in a generous mood. The trees by the entrance were noisy with willow warblers, chiffchaffs and robins. Out in the open pairs of Canada geese fussed about on the bunds, pairs of tufted ducks dozed and moorhens, oystercatchers and curlews lurked about the far bank. The usual crowd of carrion crows were about and were being given a hard time by lapwings and skylarks. A few pied wagtails bounced about on the bunds and linnets and reed buntings skittered about in the birch scrub.

Little Woolden Moss 

I retraced my steps and took the path that leads to the Northern margin of the reserve. The willow warblers in the trees were almost deafening but there was something else going on in the background. There was a lull as I turned a corner and there it was, a grasshopper warbler singing in the field margins behind the trees. I was damned if I could see it then it got drowned out again as the willow warblers resumed after half time.

Lapwings and chick, Little Woolden Moss 

The field just to the North of the reserve had been recently sown. A couple of pairs of lapwings had chicks running about with them. There was also half a dozen yellow wagtails skittering about in the distance including a couple of males glowing yellow in the sun against the black of the earth. Much to my delight there was also a male Channel wagtail (a cross between a yellow wagtail and a blue-headed wagtail). I've seen one here before but not for a couple of years. I found out later that I'd just missed a whinchat here which is a pity but I mustn't be greedy, I'd had a good visit.

Yellow wagtail, lapwing and Channel wagtail, Little Woolden Moss 
Brightly-lit birds on almost black soil. I bracketed camera exposures like mad but this is the nearest I got to a remotely usable picture. They were too far away to try and get individual photos.

I decided against walking over to Glazebury so I walked back and headed for Twelve Yards Road, bumping into the birdwatchers again along the way. It had turned into a very pleasant afternoon and the walking was getting easier. Even so I decided not to go and explore the path by the pools this time, I didn't want to push my luck. 

Twelve Yards Road

The fields were busy with woodpigeons, stock doves, lapwings and mallards with a couple of wheatears skittering about in one of the open patches. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers sang in the trees and a couple of whitethroats churred in the field drains as I passed by. Over to the South a couple of buzzards were soaring together while trying to ignore a couple of carrion crows and a jackdaw.

Kestrel, Chat Moss 

A male kestrel evidently had mouths to feed — his mate if not yet his kids — and was greeted with a lot of noise whenever he took something to one of the trees on a field boundary.

I've been puzzling over a couple of fields that have been very densely planted with willows. I had a whimsical notion that it was for the wicker furniture trade. The willow warblers and linnets seem to approve.

Chat Moss 

Another field has been flooded, bunds having been built up around the margins like a paddy field. A few dozen mallards were loitering (no other word would describe it) in the drowned vegetation.

Cutnook Lane 

Cutnook Lane was a soundscape of blackbirds, robins, chiffchaffs and woodpigeons. Pairs of collared doves and long-tailed tits chased about the trees. The field opposite Raspberry Lane was littered with woodpigeons and carrion crows and a couple of herons loafed in one corner looking somehow out of place.

The songs of blackbirds, robins and wrens almost drowned out the traffic as I crossed the motorway and got the bus over to the Trafford Centre after an excellent afternoon's birdwatching.