Greenfield

Jackdaw, Holmfirth Road 

It was a bright June day so I took advantage of the cat's going out to sun herself to get some domestic chores done without interference, or without as much interference as usual anyway, and it was mid-afternoon before I went for a walk. A conversation with a friend reminded me that with any luck the wood warbler should be arriving at Binn Green soon. It's probably a week or two early but I thought I'd go and have a shufti just in case I might strike lucky. I didn't but it was a good walk.

I got the train to Greenfield and walked the length of Chew Valley Road to The Clarence and thence up Holmfirth Road. It's easier on the feet to get the 350 bus to The Clarence from Ashton or Oldham but that's such a drag if you're coming from my direction. Greenfield's jackdaws were busy on the rooftops and the wrens, blackbirds and robins were in full song. 

There had been a refreshing breeze at the station. As I walked through Greenfield as the school run met the roadworks there wasn't any breeze and I wondered if a warm traipse up Holmfirth Road was such a good idea after all. I needn't have worried, as soon as I was out of town the breeze was back and it was very pleasant walking. (This is one of those walks that's along a pavement on a gentle gradient but looks like you've been yomping across The Great Outdoors when you show people the photos.)

Holmfirth Road 

Song thrushes and willow warblers joined the songscape in the trees by the road. A little higher up the lambs giddied about in the open fields while jackdaws fossicked about between them and pheasants called from the field margins.

Dove Stone Reservoir 

I chose not to take the road down to Dove Stone Reservoir's car park for a walk round the reservoir. It's a long drag down to the car park and it was already absolutely heaving with cars. I'll have to do it again some time, I still harbour ambitions of taking that path up the Chew Valley but that long drag to and from the car park puts me off. Perhaps I'll make a day of it in the Autumn.

Dove Stone Reservoir 

So I stayed on Holmfirth Road and walked up to Binn Green as planned. Magpies, chiffchaffs and chaffinches joined the songscape in the trees, the chiffchaffs almost drowning out the song thrushes. Way down on the reservoir a noisy pair of Canada geese were keeping clear of the passersby.

At Binn Green I ended up not going far from the car park. There's a little rise at the side that provides an overview of both Dove Stone and Yeoman Hey reservoirs as well as some lightly wooded slopes in an open area by the woodland. The woodland and the reservoirs were busy with walkers, not all of whom were noticeably quiet. 

Binn Green 

A spot in a hollow by a rocky outcrop baffled the sound from the car park and woodland and I settled for a long listen and scan round. The chiffchaffs sang incessantly, drowning out the blackbirds, willow warblers and coal tits most of the time. Every so often I'd hear a song thrush in the woodland or a mistle thrush in the trees down by Dove Stone Reservoir. There was something sounding like a singing ring ousel coming from the birch and bilberry scrub further down the road but it was being drowned out by the chiffchaffs. A bit of a wander that way didn't pick it up again and I'm not claiming it on the basis of the little I could hear. Coal tits and chiffchaffs fidgeted about in the small conifers by the road, great tits and robins in the bushes by the larger trees and wrens hopped in and out of the bilberry scrub.

Yeoman Hey Reservoir 

I wandered back to the road where a meadow pipit was vigorously parachute-singing over the hillside across the way. I could hear the contact calls of great tits and blue tits and the songs of coal tits, willow warblers and chiffchaffs in the woodland but no wood warbler today. A greenfinch flew over and a couple of goldfinches twittered and sang in the roadside trees. A trio of mallards and a couple of oystercatchers flew low over Dove Stone Reservoir and a flock of sand martins wheeled about the water margins at the dam.

Dove Stone Reservoir and the Chew Valley 

Dove Stone Reservoir 

A trio of house martins circled high over the Clarence while I waited for the 350 into Mossley for the train back. I hadn't bothered the year list any but it had been a very nice walk. As the train arrived at Trafford Park Station on my way home I added a couple of swifts to the year list.

I wouldn't have noticed this magpie's nest in Piccadilly Station had I not seen the magpie fly to it.