Mosses

Oystercatchers, Little Woolden Moss 

I decided on a late afternoon wander on the Salford mosses (primarily because it had been the first night in a week I'd got any sleep, overslept then spent a large part of the day being sat on by a sleepy cat). And this time the train wasn't cancelled so I got into Irlam without incident and wandered up Astley Road.

Astley Road 

It was a heavy, cloudy afternoon but cooler than last week and with a refreshing edge to the wind. There was a substantial passage of woodpigeons as I walked down the road, big flocks of them would feature throughout the afternoon. On the other hand the Zinnia Drive sparrows were very quiet indeed. Unlike the road which was a lot busier than usual. For some reason I felt the unevenness of the road today — not the roughness, or the potholes, the unevenness: the random shifts of planes on this wrecked road. Perhaps it was a result of the traffic, there's a definite bouncy castle effect when a lorry passes by on this road and it's difficult not to carry on reacting to it after they've gone and the ground has started to settle down.

Grey partridges, Irlam Moss 
Juvenile on the left

The first of the turf fields were being mown and stripped. Woodpigeons browsed in the mown grass. I checked out the stripped areas, there's usually something taking advantage of the newly exposed soil and all those insects and worms in it. This time it was a couple of partridges — an adult and a dark and streaky juvenile — and a juvenile kestrel. Greenfinches squeaked a protest as I walked past them in the hedgerows, the blackbirds and wrens were too busy to be bothered with me. Any other small birds were flitting shadows in the bushes.

Juvenile kestrel, Irlam Moss 

The first swallows were flitting round the junction with Roscoe Road. I passed over the motorway and found a lot more hawking low over the turf fields on the other side. Woodpigeons, magpies and carrion crows were scattered about the fields and small flocks of starlings and pairs of mistle thrushes fossicked about in the margins. As I approached the farm buildings the swallows were joined by house martins flying quite low by their standards at chimney pot height. A couple of juvenile pied wagtails with primrose yellow faces skittered about the rooftops while an adult male rummaged about in a field margin.

Chat Moss 

The stretch of road by the stables is more sheltered by a combination of buildings and tall hedgerows and I missed the refreshing effects of the breeze. A few woodpigeons and blackbirds fossicked about, otherwise it was a typical late July quiet aside from a steady traffic of ones and twos of lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls overhead. It came as a relief to get back to more open country at Four Lanes End, not least because there was another, very young and downy, kestrel sitting on the telephone wires.

Juvenile kestrel, Chat Moss 

Little Woolden Moss 

I walked down to Little Woolden Moss, tiptoeing past a couple of red admirals trying to bask in the dull sunlight on the road. There were a couple more by the car park as I went through. The breeze was starting to smell of rain so I put my cap on to try and put it off for a bit. Willow warblers squeaked in the willow scrub though it was the devil's own job to find them. The pools were relatively quiet: a couple of pairs of oystercatchers, a few lapwings, a handful of black-headed gulls including a couple of juveniles, a pair of mallards and a pied wagtail. I could hear the contact calls of goldfinches and linnets but I was a good way down the path before I saw any and then only one or two of each.

Oystercatchers, Little Woolden Moss 

It started raining, despite my having my cap on. Little Woolden Moss is halfway to anywhere. The original plan was to walk back down Twelve Yards Road and Cutnook Lane but I couldn't be bothered with retracing my steps to the car park so I carried on and turned onto the path that leads on to Moss Road. The rain stopped and the mosquitos started and I left a trail of squashed vampires behind me.

By Moss Road 

The oystercatchers flew over and congregated in one of the fields. It didn't look like a feeding party but it didn't look like a territorial event either. They'd been making territorial noises on the pool but I couldn't see any evidence of breeding. A blackbird was in full song as I joined the road and a small flock of starlings chattered in the treetops. There were more of them as I walked down the road, as well as more woodpigeons and pied wagtails. A couple of pairs of stock doves flew overhead, each pair flying in synchronised close formation. It's impressive when you see pigeons do it, stock doves fly even closer. One of the fields was being turned over by a tractor and a dozen lesser black-backs and a handful of herring gulls joined the couple of dozen black-headed gulls waiting at one side ready to look for unearthed goodies.

Looking over to New Moss Wood 

The field on the other side of the motorway hosted at least a couple of hundred woodpigeons. A passing helicopter brought them all up and nearly all of them disappeared out of sight into the cornfields as soon as it passed.

New Moss Wood 

An half hour wander round New Moss Wood was mostly quiet save the mosquitos and horseflies. There were plenty of chiffchaffs about, their squeaking calls were everywhere, but only one could be bothered with singing. I passed the time of day with a chap walking his dogs and we reminisced about the number of pubs between Throstle Nest and the top of Regent Road. As we did so I was grateful for the brown hawkers zipping round catching horseflies in midair.

It had been a week since my last proper walk and the joints were feeling it. I walked down back to Irlam Station for the train home. I had a good half hour to wait but it cut the walking time. I'll have to be a bit more active this week.

Irlam Station