Longendale Trail

Guelder rose 

I decided to let the wind and rain of the night work itself out of its system before setting out anywhere for a walk then got engrossed in the Test Match so it was lunchtime before I started making tracks. I still wasn't convinced of the weather so I thought I'd head for somewhere near a railway station, the Longendale Trail starts literally just round the corner from Hadfield Station and the trains are every half hour, so off we trot then.

Longendale Trail 

It was a grey sort of afternoon but the wind had calmed down and it was quite nice walking weather. The jackdaws of Hadfield had decided it was gloomy enough to start congregating on rooftops ready for heading to roost. The stretch of the old line up to Padfield Main Road was very quiet indeed, a couple of robins quietly fossicking about in the undergrowth, a couple of magpies fossicking about noisily by the old trackside and half a dozen woodpigeons clattering about in the treetops.

Bottoms Reservoir 

Moving into the more open country above Bottoms Reservoir the hedgerows started to get a little busier, wrens, dunnocks and goldfinches letting me know they saw me passing by and robins bobbing out to see what the noise was about. A couple of dozen Canada geese grazed on one of the fields sloping down to the reservoir and a similar number were in a raft drifting over to the far bank where I could just about pick out a family of goosanders, the very slight pink flush on the drake clinching the identification. There was a black shape bobbing about midwater, it took a few moments to realise it was a duck and an age to realise it was a drake common scoter.

Longendale Trail 

I walked on a little way, jackdaws flitting about the fields up the hill on one side of the trail, woodpigeons and mallards feeding on the slopes on the other side. A chiffchaff squeaked as it flew across the path into a hawthorn bush, there was a lot of sad-sounding tweets and wheezes from a flock of siskins in the trees.

On the way back I took the little detour that leads to the Transpennine Trail going up the hill. I had no intention of following that trail, I just wanted to follow this loop as it goes behind the copse that separates it from the old train line. A couple of greenfinches were settling into the hawthorns to roost and another chiffchaff squeaked from within the depths. 

Under the track to the footpath 

I've often wondered how people got onto the path that goes down the fields towards the reservoir, it turns out the path runs under a little railway arch halfway along the copse. I decided to leave it another day to debate whether or not my knees are up to walking down that slope. 

Buzzard

As I rejoined the old track a buzzard floated overhead and was immediately escorted out of town by a couple of carrion crows.

Padfield Main Road bridge

Heading back to Hadfield the robins had started singing and a couple of great tits were calling from the trackside hedgerows. All the serious bird action was going on at the station where a mixed tit flock was bouncing round in the trees by the platform. At least half a dozen long-tailed tits flitted about with great tits and blue tits with a chaffinch tagging along. As the train back to Manchester pulled into the station it started raining. For once I'd managed just the right window of opportunity for going for a walk without getting wet. They should make it a national holiday.