Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

For a change it was a grey start to the day. I struggled to get started or even decide what I was doing with the day so I had breakfast and a pot of tea and walked round to get the 25 to the Trafford Centre to play bus station bingo. And missed it.

Sparrowhawk,, Lostock Park 

I walked through the park to get the 250 to the Trafford Centre. The difference a day makes! There was a bit of drama as a blackbird wriggled out of the clutches of a female sparrowhawk and darted into the depths of a holly bush.

• Black-headed gull 3
• Blackbird 6
• Blue tit 2
• Carrion crow 1
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 6
• Great tit 1
• Herring gull 3
• House sparrow 2
• Lesser black-back 1
• Long-tailed tit 9
• Magpie 7
• Redwing 1
• Robin 1
• Sparrowhawk 1
• Woodpigeon 5

The next bus out was the 20 to Bolton. I was spoilt for choice. I could get off at Worsley and do that walk by Boothstown to Astley that I've not got round to this year. Or have a wander through Worsley Woods… or Blackleach… or Cutacre… I decided to get off at Walkden, walk up to Blackleach Country Park, over through to Kearsley, get the bus to Farnworth and go and have a nosy round Moses Gate Country Park. A couple of medium-sized walks would get the knees mobile again after a lazy few days. I'd got so that I was walking like Long John Silver.

Great crested grebe, Blackleach Country Park 

It's a short walk up the road to Blackleach Country Park from Walkden town centre. It was a cool and breezy day and every so often the sun threatened to emerge from behind the clouds. A small flock of goldfinches and a few blue tits were fussing around in the hedgerow by the car park. I stepped aside to allow a working party of volunteers through a gate. One stopped. "Don't I know you?" he asked. His face looked familiar but I might as easily as seen him in a bus as anywhere else (I have the same problem with relatives at Christmas). I gave him name, rank and number and we bade each other good day.

Mute cygnet, Blackleach Country Park 

The lake was busy with birds, like tending to linger with like. A couple of herds of mute swans cruised about. Likewise handfuls of shovelers, tufted ducks and gadwalls and a raft of Canada geese. Mallards hugged the sides of the lake, coots were everywhere, and there was just the one great crested grebe that I could see. Black-headed gulls flew about or called noisily from the nesting rafts and a couple of lesser black-backs loafed midwater.

Mallard, Blackleach Country Park 

Mallards, Blackleach Country Park 

Coot, Blackleach Country Park 

Black-headed gulls, Blackleach Country Park 

The woods were fairly quiet, most of the small bird noises being provided by the twigs rattling against each other in the breeze. Blackbirds and robins rummaged about by the paths and wrens sang from the undergrowth. A mixed tit flock seemed to consist entirely of blue tits, coal tits and nuthatches. 

Blackleach Country Park 

Whenever I've walked up through the woods along Moss Road towards the motorway it's been to the backdrop of the noise of heavy plant machinery. It seems there's been some thinning out of the trees and scrub on the edge of the country park for today I could see the waste management works that makes the noise. A little further along a kestrel hovered over the field by the motorway.

Blackleach Country Park 

I bobbed over the motorway into Kearsley and walked round to the Melville Street bus stop for the 22 to Farnworth Library. It's only a mile and I could have walked it but it's a dreary main road trudge and I only had five minutes to wait for the bus.

I crossed the road to the library then walked down Rawson Road, under the expressway and into Moses Gate Country Park. I turned onto the path that sweeps down the steep hill down to the main lake. As I was coming over I'd seen that a first-Winter Caspian gull had been seen here earlier in the day. Redwings and blackbirds skittered about the trees and a great spotted woodpecker took exception to me as I passed.

Moses Gate Country Park 

Moses Gate Country Park 

I groaned as I approached the lake: a flock of large gulls rose and circled over the lake before drifting over towards Bolton town centre. It was a mixture of herring gulls and lesser black-backs but one bird stood out amongst the wheeling mass. It was mostly in silhouette against a bright sky but the long wings, heavy shoulders, round head and big blob of an end to its beak shouted yellow-legged gull so even if I'd missed the Caspian gull I had me a consolation prize.

Herring gulls and common gulls, Moses Gate Country Park 

Herring gulls, Moses Gate Country Park 

There were a lot of black-headed gulls about at this end of the lake with a few herring gulls, all of them subadults, and a few common gulls. Nearly all the large gulls were over by the car park, a mixture of lesser black-backs and herring gulls in a bewildering range of plumages.

Moses Gate Country Park 

The mute swans and Canada geese all headed that way, somebody must have brought in some food. The mallards were busy making baby mallards, shovelers cruised about in groups of three or four and coots squabbled with each other at every opportunity.

As I approached the car park I bumped into another birdwatcher who immediately put me onto the Caspian gull (thanks Dennis). Once spotted it stuck out a mile, a long-necked, long-winged, long-billed and small-headed gull. And ghostly pale. The head looked white from a distance, close to it was very pale beige-grey, nearly white on the face, with dark brown streaks on its neck. The upperparts were mottled brown but more blurred and softer than the herring gulls and lesser black-backs, and significantly paler. Compared to it the herring gulls and even the lesser black-backs were more rectangular birds. I've only seen a handful of Caspian gulls before and they've all looked bigger than the herring gulls they were with. This bird was quite small, about the same size as a herring gull but slimmer. I'll have to remember to forget the size and concentrate on the structure next time I'm searching for a possible Caspian gull.

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

It wasn't shy in coming closer and just as interested in any free food going as the other gulls so I got the chance to look at it in detail and in different angles of light. Even with the light behind it it was a pale-looking gull.

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

Mute swans and First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

Mute swans and First-Winter Caspian gull (left), Moses Gate Country Park 

Mute swans and First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter herring gull and first-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull and first-Winter lesser black-back, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

I thanked Dennis again and made my way through the car park to the river Croall. It was probably getting on a bit in the day to hope for wagtails but I might find goosanders on the river. But not today.

River Croall 

Along the Kingfisher Trail

I followed the path up to the Kingfisher Trail which follows the Croall down to where it joins the Irwell at Nob End. The small birds and woodpigeons were settling down to roost and it was only the magpies and carrion crows still noisy and active in the trees. 

Nob End 

It's a nice walk through a post-industrial landscape (as are Blackleach and Moses Gate country parks). Nob End is a Site of Special Scientific Interest as the plant life includes many only found on calcareous soil, a legacy of the alkaline residue of the 18th and 19th century chemical works producing sulphuric acid and washing soda. Not that they're much in evidence in the half-light of a late afternoon in December.

Prestolee Road and Nob End

I joined Prestolee Road and crossed the Irwell by the aqueduct carrying the relict Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal into Prestolee where I expected to find the bus stop for the 512 into Bury. I couldn't even find the poles any bus stop might have been if somebody had pinched the signs. So I walked into Kearsley and got the bus there. I didn't have the legs to walk down for the 22 back to the Trafford Centre, which would have got me home a lot quicker. The bus crossed back over the Irwell and did its circuit round Prestolee before crossing back over the bridge and on its way. As we meandered round the bus announcements reeled off a series or bus stops and not a one could I see from the window. Island life is always different.