Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Moorhen, Crime Lake

It was a bright, sunny day and the school playing field was filled with the excited shouts of P.E. teachers. Some white-fronted geese have been grazing on a field near Daisy Nook Country Park this past few days so I decided it was time I had a visit down there.

I just missed the train I was aiming for so did what I should have done in the first place and got the bus into town, crossed Piccadilly Gardens and got the 76, getting off just where it turns off Ashton Road East onto Westminster Road. I walked back to the corner and walked down Cutler Hill Road to the car park by Crime Lake. The geese had been reported on a field just to the North of the lake.

Crime Lake 

Crime Lake's a small reservoir, the feed for the Bardsley Canal which runs through Daisy Nook roughly parallel with the River Medlock. A couple of groups of Canada geese lined the far banks, half a dozen goosanders cruised by them. Mallards, tufted ducks, coots and moorhens bobbed about on the water closer to hand. Titmice and chaffinches bobbed about in the tree-lined slope behind the wall on the other side of the path and a nuthatch sang from somewhere near the road. The field which had hosted the white-fronted geese was on the far side of the lake and the part of it I could see from here looked empty save a couple of carrion crows.

Bardsley Canal 

Stairway to
the unknown 

I walked a way down the canal which was busy with people taking advantage of a mild, sunny weekend day. I decided I needed to get down to Crime Lane and walk round past the farm so I could see the rest of that field. I was wondering whether the perilous-looking flight of steps in a gap in the wall led down to Crime Lane when a couple of birdwatchers asked me the same thing. Checking the map the answer was yes. I let them go first, promising to give them a five minute head start so I didn't jinx their search. It's not a flight of steps I'd recommend to anyone with walking difficulties, the turn at the top is a bit tricky. Anyway, I got down and walked along the fly-tipped rubbish-strewn lane and met the birdwatchers who told me the geese were nowhere to be seen.

I wasn't awfully surprised but decided to have a dawdle down the lane anyway. Magpies, woodpigeons and black-headed gulls flitted about the fields. A pair of herring gulls canoodled in the middle of one of the fields. The equestrian centre down the road was identifiable by the crowd of jackdaws calling from the trees nearby. I was seeing no sign of white-fronted geese on the field by the lake, just molehills and carrion crows. I walked further, curious to find where a buzzard was calling from. The brook feeding the lake is hidden by trees and a pair of buzzards were sitting in there calling at each other.

Crime Lane 

Should I turn back and explore Daisy Nook or carry on down to Ashton Road and get a bus from there? I decided to carry on, I'd come back for a proper explore of Daisy Nook on a quieter day. I walked down and got the 409 to Rochdale. A couple of walkers told me a friend of theirs had seen the geese fly off that morning.

The plan was to head over to Elton Reservoir to see if the scaup was still on there. The plan was. It was too nice a day to spend it on buses so on a whim I decided to get off at Tandle Hill Road and have a wander round the country park. I ended up getting off at Thornham Old Road because two bus stops were closed because the pavements were dug up.

By Thornham Old Road 

As I walked down Thornham Old Road goldfinches and robins called from the hedgerows. A crowd of black-headed gulls loafed in one field; a crowd of common gulls, herring gulls, magpies and crows fussed about just over the brow of another. I took the footpath up to Tandle Hill, tiptoeing my way through feeding dunnocks at one point.

Tandle Hill 

The woods were very quiet, or would have been if it weren't for the occasional rattle of magpies. Up top the views were spectacular in the clear January light. There was a little more birdlife on the way down to Oozewood Road: a couple of blue tits flew from a gorse bush into the trees, a chaffinch called from a bush, a kestrel hovered over a field and was chased off by a carrion crow.

Winter Hill in the distance

I seriously contemplated turning West on Oozewood Road and walking into Stakehill but my knees suggested it made more sense to head back to Rochdale Road, get the 409 and the train back to Manchester from Rochdale. Which I did. All the woodpigeons I hadn't been seeing on Tandle Hill were in the fields by Oozewood Road. Had I a mind to I might have felt disappointed by the day's birdwatching but I'd had a couple of nice walks in glorious weather so I wasn't complaining.

Not quite the last flight of steps of the day