Wigan flashes

Great crested grebe and chick, Horrocks Flash

The weather was still not altogether to be trusted so I thought I'd be as well to have one of those walks where I can bail out and get the bus home if I have to. I got the train to Wigan, walked down Chapel Lane (which sounds picturesque but is the A49 dual carriageway), dropped down onto the towpath for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and headed towards Leigh. Other directions are available but this one gets you to the Wigan flashes.

Marsh orchid, Poolstock 

The first stretch runs alongside Poolstock Lane. The songscape was mostly blackbirds, robins and wrens with a supporting cast of chiffchaffs, blackcaps and song thrushes in the trees on the other side. Goldfinches and greenfinches twittered about, magpies and woodpigeons lurked on rooftops and swifts hawked over the canal. A young blackbird made a nonsense of hiding in deep cover in an elder bush by making such a racket when its mother turned up with a beakful of assorted worms. I've not seen any orchids yet this year so it was nice to see a good showing of marsh orchids (southern marsh orchids, I think) peppered about the towpath verge. A few drake mallards floated about on the canal, a duck with two well-grown ducklings sat on the bank, dropping down into the water as I passed.

Mallard and ducklings, Poolstock 

Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Poolstock 

The canal took a sharp turn to the left towards the flashes, a collection of lakes formed by the subsidence of abandoned coal mines. The canal wiggles it's way through them towards Platt Bridge.  Some, like Westwood Flash on the other side of the canal here, are hidden from the canal by trees while others are right next to the canal towpaths. The first Cetti's warbler of the day was singing from typically scrubby reeds by the canal near Scotmans Bridge where the main road passes over.

Common tern, Scotman's Flash 

Scotman's Flash was on the other side of the bridge on my side of the canal. This is the biggest of these flashes. Over of the far side a herd of mute swans cruised the reedbed margins. A raft of a couple of dozen large gulls — equal numbers of herring gulls and lesser black-backs — drifted midwater while black-headed gulls and common terns called noisily as they flew about. Dozens of sand martins and swifts hawked low over the water.

Common blue damselfly, Scotman's Flash 

Closer to hand, on the bankside, half a dozen common blue damselflies clung onto the windblown grass hoping to see the sun sometime.

Swift, Scotman's Flash 

I spent a few minutes getting a sizeable portfolio of "there was a swift there a moment ago" photos.

Scotman's Flash 

Out on the flash a couple of pairs of great crested grebes warily cruised by each other, keeping a good thirty yards of clear water and flashing ear tufts whenever they drifted too close. There were a few mallards about but only the one coot and, surprisingly, not a single tufted duck.

Greylags and goslings, Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

Canada geese and goslings, Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

I passed a mixed group of greylags and Canada geese on the towpath, the greylag goslings looking a good way ahead of the Canada goslings. 

Looking over through the trees on the other side of the canal it looked like all the coots were on Pearson's Flash with a few mute swans. A very dark buzzard passed over the flash and it took me a while to be sure I wasn't looking at a marsh harrier, it was only when it turned and headed over the canal towards Poolstock I could see enough of its shape to be satisfied of the identification.

Scotman's Flash 

The reedy end of Scotman's Flash was noisy with warblers: blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers in the trees and whitethroats and Cetti's warblers singing in the scrub with a few reed buntings.

Buzzard, Turner's Flash 

I crossed Moss Bridge and walked the towpath on the Turner's Flash side. There's a good bit of woodland between the towpath and the flash with garden warblers joining in the songscape. The first reed warbler of the day was drowned out by Cetti's warblers at a small pool near the bridge. A male kestrel hovered overhead before moving on towards Pearson's Flash and another, paler, buzzard passed overhead. The buzzards are moulting their flight feathers, giving them rather harrier-like silhouettes in flight.

Mute swans and cygnets, Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

Mallards drifted down the canal. A family of mute swans and their cygnets led a parade of drake mallards. It all looked very purposeful but I couldn't see it. Behind the trees on the other side Canada geese and oystercatchers on Bryn Flash voiced their protest at a passing helicopter.

Swallows under the railway bridge by Horrocks Flash 

The Wigan to Liverpool train line separates Turner's and Horrocks flashes. A few pairs of swallows had started nests underneath.

Horrocks Flash 

The towpath runs alongside Horrocks Flash with cuts through the trees giving excellent views of this end. Horrocks Flash is only slightly smaller than Scotman's Flash and is shaped like the letter E, the towpath runs along the baseline. 

Horrocks Flash 

Black-headed gulls and common terns were making a lot of noise. I wasn't sure if a couple of nests were on the go, there was certainly a lot of courtship and display. The coots were uncharacteristically furtive which suggests the nests had eggs not young. A great crested grebe cruised about with at least one little humbug riding deep in its back feathers. I was surprised to see a drake pochard loafing on a small rock, the pochard was surprised when a cormorant decided to land on that rock regardless of whether anyone was already there. 

Common terns, Horrocks Flash 

Reed buntings and reed warblers sang with the dunnocks, robins and blackbirds in the reedbeds at the end of the flash. The Merlin app told me that the reed bunting I could see singing five yards away was a robin and a blue tit, the sort of response which stops me using it on any regular basis.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

The stretch from here to Platt Bridge where the line between Wigan and Golborne passes over the canal is wooded. Chaffinches, great tits and goldcrests joined the songscape as I left the last of the Cetti's warblers behind. Young great tits bounced and squeaked in the trees, the long-tailed tits were very quiet.

Platt Bridge 

I weighed up whether or not I had the legs to go on from Platt Bridge through Abram to Plank Lane and/or Pennington Flash and decided I wasn't convinced. I'd had a fair walk and the weather had more or less behaved itself, I could — and should — do the walk from Plank Lane to the flashes another day. So I called it quits, getting the 320 back to Wigan and the 132 back to the Trafford Centre.