Hindley

Robin, Amberswood 

The early morning alarm call having been fed, I looked out at the weak sun on what promised to be the last day before snow and ice and decided that whatever else I was going to do with it I wasn't getting involved in yet another of Northern's Monday meltdowns. I had an early lunch and set out to the Trafford Centre for the 132 to Wigan.

Low Hall 

I got off in Hindley and walked down Liverpool Road. It had become a very gloomy grey day and even though it was still lunchtime it looked like bedtime. The jackdaws in the trees agreed. The woodpigeons were more active and a mistle thrush on sentry go rattled me off on my way.

Mute swan, Low Hall 

It was damp underfoot and quiet in the trees in Low Hall. A couple of wrens chaffed as I passed and robins, dunnocks and blackbirds rummaged about the path edges. The pair of mute swans were feeding by the near bank of the pond, a couple of coots and half a dozen mallards drifted midwater and half a dozen drake teals lurked by the reeds on the far side. 

Low Hall 

I watched a moorhen diving for water weed roots and it occurred to me how rarely I see them go underwater. Climbing trees, yes, diving no.

Mallards, Low Hall 

Literally the first birds I encountered at Amberswood were a pair of willow tits in a bush by the Crompton Street entrance. They were part of a mixed tit flock that was fussing about there because someone had put bird seed on top of a post. Oddly, the flock didn't include long-tailed tits, in fact I didn't see any of them here today. None of the birds were up for staying still for photographs, which is probably as well as the light was terrible and the results would have been disappointing.

Amberswood Lake

The lake was oddly quiet in this early twilight. A mute swan, a great crested grebe and a dozing tufted duck. A dozen black-headed gulls seemed ready to roost.

My bumping into a second mixed tit flock, this time with just the one willow tit and no long-tailed tits, coincided with my bumping into a couple of dog walkers ready for a chat and their well-behaved and friendly dogs, which spared my trying to get bad photos of the birds.

Amberswood 

Amberswood 

I walked into the woods and looped round back to Liverpool Road. I'd like to pretend this was the intention all along but I was aiming for Manchester Road and forgot that at the junction by the toppled tree it's left then right not right then left. As I walked through one of the clearings I encountered a giddy kipper of a puppy and as I stopped to brush the mud off my thighs I glanced up and noticed a male kestrel sitting at the top of the tree in front of me. Having satisfied its curiosity it went back to surveying the scrubby grass beyond us.

Kestrel, Amberswood 

More by luck than planning I got back to the bus stop in Hindley with five minutes to spare for the 132 back to the Trafford Centre. It's nice when it works like that.

Amberswood