Hindley

Willow tit, Amberswood 

The timetables for the 126 and 132 are a bit funny lately so when I headed for the Trafford Centre it was for either a walk round Pennington Flash or Amberswood. The 132 turned up within minutes of my arrival (I'd been expecting a half hour wait for one or other) so Amberswood it was.

I decided I'd stay on to the Gregory Street stop on Wigan Road to walk straight into Amberswood and then go over to Low Hall and into Platt Bridge and get the 609 to Leigh for the 126 home. It was a grey and blustery day and I was glad I wasn't fighting the wind by Pennington Flash.

Amberswood 

It was lunchtime and there were plenty of dogs and their walkers about, all friendly. It's a fundamental rule of nature that if I get talking to a dog walker on a path on Amberswood a mixed tit flock will cavort about in the bushes behind my collocutor and willow tits call behind my back. And so it came to pass. The minute the conversation finished the birds vanished into the gorse bushes and didn't come back out until I was twenty yards down the lane. The robins and blackbirds were more cooperative. The great spotted woodpecker objecting to my coming to the fork in the path took ages to find.

Coal tit and great tit, Amberswood 

At the corner of the lake another mixed tit flock was busy at the feeders hanging in a willow tree. It was refreshing to see three willow tits in one tree and I spent some time trying to get photos of them in the dismal light. Great tits, blue tits and coal tits bustled about; chaffinches and reed buntings tidied up any spillage. 

An uncooperative willow tit, Amberswood 

The goldfinches I kept hearing weren't coming to the feeders. About twenty of them were flitting about in the tops of the alders with a dozen siskins and at least one redpoll. Every couple of minutes the whole flock took off, flew a large circle then landed two or three trees further along, which made picking out all the runners and riders a lot more work than it could have been.

Amberswood Lake 

Out on the lake a raft of a couple of dozen black-headed gulls and a common gull bathed and preened with a solitary great crested grebe. Coots and moorhens fussed about, a single male tufted duck dozed in a corner and the usual mute swans and mallards lurked by the far bank ready to look decorative for tiny tots with bags of food. A kestrel flew in and hovered over the grass bank before heading off for Platt Bridge.

Low Hall 

It was drizzling as I crossed the road to Low Hall. A few blackbirds lumbered about under the trees and a couple of robins sang but the wooded areas were generally quiet. A dozen drake teals whistled by the reedbed on the pool while pairs of mallards and gadwall cruised about in between the coots and mute swans.

I took the path to the old railway line and into Platt Bridge for the bus to Leigh. A dozen black-headed gulls perched on the lampposts by the bus stop as I waited. I entertained the idea of stopping off along the way for a walk through Bickershaw Country Park but realistically I'd only have had twenty minutes of daylight to play with. Less than that, in fact: as the bus got into Abram and took the turn for Bickershaw the sky went dark and it started pouring down. I'd had a much-needed bit of exercise, had a couple of chats with folk and seen more than my usual quota of willow tits so I had nothing to complain about.