Mosses

Juvenile house sparrow, Stretford

A couple of young spadgers spent the morning sitting in one of the rose bushes. Every so often they'd have a go at the fat balls in the nearby feeder but most of the time they just sat about chirping. They looked very young to be out on their own but I couldn't see any adult taking a close watch on them. Usually there'd be one of the cock sparrows supervising them, which I suspect was happening yesterday in the rambling rose. 

Blue tit, Stretford 

Baby spadgers, Stretford 

A new train timetable is usually an invitation for disruption and given Northern's recent performance I thought it advisable to let things bed down for a day or so before going very far. I had my lunch, nipped over to Irlam and went for a stroll on the mosses. It was a grey day, always threatening rain but not delivering, but a cool breeze kept it from being clammy.

Grey partridges, Irlam Moss
Woodpigeons in the background 

I walked down Astley Road, the Zinnia Drive sparrows being very busy indeed. The field behind the houses on that side had been roughly plowed and there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the field and the garden hedges. There were plenty of woodpigeons, blackbirds and magpies on there too, as well as both song thrushes and mistle thrushes and a couple of black-headed gulls. On the other side of the road I puzzled as to how the blackbirds were fully visible in the grass but I could only see the tops of the heads of the couple of pairs of grey partridges.

Even the baby long-tailed tits were camera-shy 

I'd been hearing plenty of song from blackbirds, robins, chaffinches and wrens and a couple of blackcaps and whitethroats. The first chiffchaff of the day was singing at the junction with Roscoe Road. A lot of goldfinches bounced around in the trees with the chaffinches but still no sign of yellowhammers.

Astley Road just after the motorway 

Over the motorway and the turf fields were a sea of woodpigeons and starlings. I couldn't see any young lapwings about, the way the adults were ignoring the carrion crows and magpies I think they've all been predated. Overhead a cloud of swifts, swallows and house martins whirled and swooped at rooftop height, many of the swallows hawking even lower over the fields at knee height. A kestrel landed in one of the trees as I walked by and made it very clear that I should move along please. As soon as she was sure I was safely away she flew over to her nest to a raucous welcome.

Little Woolden Moss 

Little Woolden Moss was in a mood to be generous if I put a bit of work in. Willow warblers, blackcaps, blackbirds, robins and chiffchaffs sang in the trees by the car park. Black-headed gulls and woodpigeons flew overhead, swifts wheeled and shrieked over the birch scrub. At first sight the open Moss looked deserted save great swathes of fluffy white cotton grass. The meadow pipits, linnets and reed buntings soon made themselves known, flitting about or singing from perches in the reeds and birch scrub. A couple of curlews flew in, calling all the while until they disappeared on the other side of the pools. Canada geese, mallards and herring gulls loafed on the bunds and a teal disappeared into a gulley, the first I've seen in weeks, lapwings and oystercatchers called from the banks of pools while moorhens quietly fossicked about the water margins.

Cotton grass, Little Woolden Moss 

Walking along I tried to find where the cuckoo was singing from in the birch scrub and had no luck. The willow warblers were considerably easier. It was too cool for butterflies or dragonflies so it was no surprise to see not a sign of any hobbies. 

I intended walking back into Irlam via Cutnook Lane so I only walked part of the way beyond the path to Moss Road before turning back. I carried on onto the track on the Northern margin of the reserve to have a quick look at the barley fields to see what was about. A few lapwings were easy enough to see but the crop's too high now to be able to see the skylarks, meadow pipits and yellow wagtails I could hear.

I walked back through the trees to the car park entrance serenaded by willow warblers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and a song thrush as I played peekaboo with another family of long-tailed tits.

Twelve Yards Road 

The whitethroats took over most of the singing as I walked down Twelve Yards Road. Dozens of swallows swooped and hawked low over the road. A female marsh harrier floated by and headed for Little Woolden Moss. I was standing staring at a field and wondering why a dozen Canada geese were sat in a queue in the middle of it when a stoat ran across the road and disappeared into the wayside cow parsley.

Cutnook Lane 

The hedgerows were filled with more robins, blackbirds, whitethroats and chiffchaffs as I walked down the road and turned into Cutnook Lane. It was nice to see so many singing reed buntings about in the fields.

I only had ten minutes to wait for the 100 to the Trafford Centre and I even made the connection with the 25 home, a good ending to a long afternoon's birdwatching.