Wellacre Country Park

Redwing

It was a bright and cold and frosty morning. I was just checking the running of the trains to Burscough Bridge when the Met Office issued a yellow warning for ice in the area. I recalled how often I've fallen on my arse or my back on icy walks between Burscough Bridge and Martin Mere and decided I'd postpone the walk until the greyer, milder weather promised next week.

I havered far too long on what to do with the day, the problem being that if you don't get out early enough by the time you've made the connections for the journey there's not a right lot of time left for the walk before the light starts fading. I decided to head out for Pennington Flash, the gull roost making it worth sticking around into twilight. I got to the bus stop with five minutes to wait for the next 25 to the Trafford Centre. Twenty minutes later I double-checked the connections at the Trafford Centre, Eccles, Worsley and Mosley Common and couldn't make any combination work to get me to Pennington Flash more than half an hour before sunset, and that assuming the next 25 turned up at the time it was due. So I got the 256 into Flixton and had a wander round Wellacre Country Park.

Wellacre Wood 

As I squelched my way into Wellacre Wood I wondered if it was such a good idea. I soon changed my mind, it was one of those days when the landscape is green and gold and black. The parakeets were notable by their absence and this made it easier to hear the blackbirds, great tits, blue tits and dunnocks rummaging about in the undergrowth. 

Wellacre Wood 

A great spotted woodpecker saw the female sparrowhawk before I did, I only spotted it as it lurched from its perch low down in a maple tree and went crashing through a bramble hedge. There was a lot of chatter from blackbirds, great tits and house sparrows after her passing.

Business as usual 

The fields were green and largely empty, just a handful of horses were out and had a couple of magpies accompanying them. I heard myself asking the magpies why there weren't any fieldfares about in the trees on the field margins. I negotiated the extremely damp path to Jack Lane and was rewarded by a redwing flying into the tree at the end of the path and a mixed flock of meadow pipits and fieldfares flying by and heading towards the canal.

Jack Lane

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

Jack Lane Nature Reserve was fairly quiet — a blackbird, a dunnock, a wren and a goldfinch in the trees, woodpigeons and jackdaws flying over. The moorhens and water rails in the reeds were vocal but elusive. Walking past the frozen pools it only felt like yesterday I was watching nesting reed warblers here.

The trees along the railway embankment were very quiet indeed. Not so much as a scolding wren.

Dutton's Pond 

Dutton's Pond looked lovely and had four moorhens and a pair of mallards cruising about. A few black-headed gulls flew over heading for roost. Woodpigeons flew around looking for the next lot of ivy to strip of berries. The squirrels seemed to be already raiding caches of nuts.

Grey squirrel 

Green Hill 

I walked through onto Green Hill where there were a few blue tits and great tits about but they were keeping very low profiles and didn't seem to be organised into mixed flocks. Magpies and woodpigeons were busy in the trees, their bouncing about causing leaves to drop accounted for most of the rustling noises in the background, the woodpigeons' noisily picking ivy berries accounting for the rest. Try as I might I couldn't see where the jays were screaming from.

Green Hill 

As the sun lowered into the clouds just above the horizon the passage of black-headed gulls overhead going to roost were joined by lesser black-backs and herring gulls. Jackdaws and rooks headed for the trees on Carrington Moss. I headed for the bus home.

It was nice to see a pair of dabchicks on the Mersey by Flixton Bridge, they've not been around the last few times I've been past.

Green Hill