Mosses

Willow warbler, Little Woolden Moss 

It was a cool, dark grey, windy Saturday and I didn't feel like doing much. I got the train into Irlam thinking I might just potter up Astley Road and potter back down again by Roscoe Road and get the buses back home.

Blue tits, Irlam 

Blackbirds and a coal tit sang at Irlam Station. I walked down to Astley Road to the sound of robins, blackcaps and woodpigeons and Astley Road was busy with more of the same and the frantic bustle of the Zinnia Close spadgers in the hedgerows. A blue tit sang from the top of a sapling and a pheasant barked from somebody's back garden.

Kestrel, Irlam Moss 

Goldfinches and greenfinches twittered in the roadside trees of Irlam Moss, chiffchaffs and wrens sang in the hedgerows. The first field to the left of the road has become yet another turf field and was littered with starlings, magpies and a pair of mistle thrushes. On the right the field nearest the road had been ploughed and a flock of woodpigeons fossicked about the disturbed ground with three pigeons (all, remarkably, the "rock dove" type, unlike the usual flock which has a lot of birds with white primaries). Black-headed gulls passed low over the field but didn't settle. A pair of chaffinches bounced about in one corner and in another was a lone grey partridge. This was the first I've seen here this year, last year the covey was almost a fixture. A pale ghost of a female white wagtail flew low over the dark field and disappeared into the rough grass at the side. I waited a while but she wasn't for coming out any time soon.

Over by Prospect Grange a kestrel hovered over the field, sometimes drifting in quite close to the road.

Grey partridge, Irlam Moss 

Just before the motorway I looked back over the field behind Worsley View Farm. Lapwings and pied wagtails were dotted about amongst the woodpigeons and an oystercatcher was busy feeding along a ploughed ridge.

Pied wagtail, Chat Moss 

More robins, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and wrens were joined by great tits in the hedgerows North of the motorway. The turf field by the motorway looked empty save the gang of magpies in the far corner. It took me a while to spot the lapwings sitting in the grass, not as many of them as I'd expected.

A crowd of starlings fed in the paddocks while swallows swooped around the horses' ankles despite the cool weather.

The big expanse of turf fields was busy with birds. A flock of rooks mingled with starlings, lapwings and woodpigeons in the mid-distance. Closer by more swallows swooped about and pied wagtails rummaged in the grass. Three sandy little dots at the back of the field caught my eye. Luckily for me they were moving into the field and eventually I could identify them as wheatears.

Buzzard, Chat Moss 

I walked down Lavender Lane, being churred at by a whitethroat in the brambles by the land drain. A couple of pheasants were sparring in the rough pasture and skylarks sang above the fields. There was a fly-by by the usual kestrel. Way out on the edge of the rough pasture, by the trees on the boundary of the reserve, the pure white underparts of a very contrasty buzzard shone out like a beacon.

The singing chiffchaffs, robins and wrens in the trees of Little Woolden Moss were easily outnumbered and outsung by willow warblers. Out on the pools a handful of black-headed gulls made a lot of noise while Canada geese, lapwings and even carrion crows quietly got on with their business. A curlew called as it flew past and a meadow pipit did its parachute song before disappearing into the long grass. The hares-tail cotton grass was in full bloom across the moss.

Little Woolden Moss 

I had hopes I might find a yellow wagtail on the barley field on Moss Farm. No luck today, "only" lapwings and skylarks. Realistically, I didn't have the legs for the walk into Glazebury. I dawdled back as a flock of sand martins descended on the pools, upsetting a couple of lapwings with their arrival. As I approached the path to the car park I could see it was actually a mixed flock of hirundines: two swallows and a hundred-plus sand martins. A falcon swooped in, for a second I thought: hobby, but it was the kestrel come in to hover over the patch of rough by the willow scrub.

Twelve Yards Road 

I walked back and headed up Twelve Yards Road. Skylarks sang over the fields, woodpigeons and magpies fossicked about. Whitethroats, chiffchaffs and robins sang by the roadside, a willow warbler sang in a willow plantation, a blackcap sang from the trees by the farmhouses.

Yellowhammers, Chat Moss 

The barley was sprouting in the ploughed field by the road. A couple of pheasants, including the black bird with the grey wings, browsed the field margins. Lapwings ignored the artificial giant kite hovering and bobbing about in the wind in an apparently successful attempt to keep the rooks and woodpigeons off the Spring sowing. I was just thinking about some photos of yellowhammers a friend had taken the other day and regretting that they seemed to have disappeared from Chat Moss when a pair flew across the road to feed in the corner of the field. I'm glad it was my lousy fieldcraft and not a lack of yellowhammers that had me not seeing any.

Yellowhammer, Chat Moss 

I turned into Cutnook Lane and came face to face with a roe deer. I stood still as it slowly trotted off into cover. They don't seem all that bothered about people here.

Roe deer, Chat Moss 

A buzzard flew by. A small flock of mallards did a circuit of the fields either side of Twelve Yards Road before settling into the fishery. A cormorant left the fishery for the roost on the Ship Canal. More robins, chiffchaffs, great tits and a blackcap sang in the hedgerows, carrion crows, magpies and woodpigeons fed in the fields. It had been a busy afternoon.