Mersey Valley

Goosander, Banky Meadow

It was another nice day and after cat-napping most of the night I was in a better frame of mind for having a lunchtime walk. I decided to head over to Irlam for a walk across the mosses, skipping Little Woolden Moss this time and having a nosy round Croxden's and Barton mosses. So of course the train was cancelled at the last minute. I could faff around with the bus connections, which would have been better half an hour earlier or I could do something else. So I headed for Cob Kiln Wood. Walking away from the station a pair of swifts streaked over the chimney tops. I took that as a good omen.

Over Ousel Brook into Cob Kiln Wood 

The robins, wrens, blackbirds and song thrushes were singing lustily at the entrance to Cob Kiln Wood. As I crossed the bridge over Ousel Brook blue tits and great tits bounced about in the hedgerows and goldfinches flitted about the treetops. For all the rich soundscape there wasn't a warbler to be heard, very unlike yesterday on Stretford Meadows. I'd almost reached the electricity pylon clearing when I heard the first chiffchaff.

Cob Kiln Wood 

Approaching the electricity pylon clearing 

A buzzard lumbered off and flew over the trees as I entered the clearing. A blackcap sang in the trees and a whitethroat sang from deep in the dogwood patch. A few more blue tits and goldfinches bounced about, a pair of long-tailed tits were carrying huge beakfuls of insects and woodpigeons lumbered about in the treetops. It was nice to be able to walk along the paths and not play hopscotch across the clumps of comfrey. The weather brought out the butterflies: holly blues and speckled woods flitting about in the trees, large whites, orange tips and brimstones in the clearing.

The electricity pylon clearing 

Comfrey patches coming into flower 

I dropped down onto Cob Kiln Lane and walked down towards the river. There was a terrific commotion up in the trees as a pair of mistle thrushes made their objections to magpies conspicuously clear.

Cob Kiln Lane 

I decided to cross the river and have a wander round Banky Meadow. A few pigeons flitted about the Carrington Spur Road bridge and a drake mallard drifted by the bank. I was just thinking to myself that it was a shame that the river's got into a tatty state again when I spotted something down river. Something long and dark was fishing underwater a couple of hundred yards down. I waited for the cormorant to bob back up again. It didn't. It wasn't a cormorant. A brown back broke the water and submerged again. An otter. An otter? No, probably a mink. Then a head broke water to take a breath. A dog face, not a ferret face. An otter. Gosh. I got a couple of photos of splashes in the water as the tip of the tail flipped underwater. Which is about par for the course whenever I try to photograph otters.

Banky Lane 

Banky Lane was noisy with robins, wrens and blackbirds. I didn't hear any warblers until I got to the fork in the lane and bumped into the first singing chiffchaff. Thereafter things changed plenty with blackcaps, chiffchaffs and a garden warbler singing in the damp woodland and whitethroats singing in the open glades.

The path down to the river

I took the detour to the river to see if anything was about (and in the hope that the otter might have drifted down and fancied a bit of sunbathing on the beach). A few mallards drifted about and a pair of goosanders sat on the shingles.

River Mersey

Cutting through back onto Banky Lane the only ring-necked parakeets of the day rattled in the treetops by the car park. I walked round onto Carrington Road and got the 18 back into Urmston and thence home. It had been a pretty good afternoon.

Banky Meadow