New Moss Wood

Mistle thrush 

The plan was to take advantage of the last scheduled sunny day for a while by avoiding the crowds, having a quick wander round New Moss Wood, walking up to Little Woolden Moss to see what was about then back into Irlam probably across Chat Moss. The plan was.

It was a bright, sunny day with a light cooling breeze ideal for walking when I left home. There was more cloud about than I'd seen all week and as the train made its way the ten minutes to Irlam a hazy film of cloud covered the sun. 

I walked through the allotments to New Moss Road with backing vocals from robins, blackbirds, wrens and chiffchaffs and cameos from goldfinches, great tits and blue tits. A buzzard slowly flew overhead and floated off in the general direction of the ship canal. As the path turned and met the railway line chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang from the trackside trees. There were more singing from the path leading from New Moss Road into Cadishead together with a willow warbler.

The clouds had rolled in and then the wind dropped and it became one of those heavy armpits of a day that can be hard work. I decided that the quick nosy about New Moss Wood should become a proper walk round to see what was about. I didn't have the energy for the planned yomp.

Looking over to Irlam Moss

New Moss Wood 

Robins, chiffchaffs, blackbirds and blackcaps were the mainstays of the songscape with a constant backing track from a mistle thrush by the road. Great tits and blue tits were busy in the trees, wrens and dunnocks bustled about in the undergrowth. There was an abundance of butterflies: a confusing assortment of small whites, large whites and orange tips along the rides, peacocks and speckled woods along the narrower paths. The dry spell had turned all the muddy tracks into grass-speckled concrete and all the dragonfly ponds were half-empty.

One of the dragonfly ponds 

I definitely didn't have the energy for the planned walk but I went a little way down for a nosy over Cadishead Moss. A small flock of black-headed gulls had settled on one of the fields with some carrion crows and magpies. A pheasant walked across the road, I could see the tops of the heads of more in the fields. I couldn't see any lapwings until they were spooked up by a couple of courting buzzards that were more intent on circling round each other at treetop height than anything on the ground.

On the walk back I decided against walking back through the allotments but I didn't much fancy heading straight down the road to catch the bus outside the library. I wondered about that path into Cadishead and found myself walking down it.

The path into Cadishead
Recreation ground to the left, Manchester to Liverpool railway to the right.

Most nature walks in Greater Manchester are shaped by their industrial archaeology. I'm not sure if this path was a spur between the Manchester to Liverpool line and the abandoned Wigan to Altrincham line or if it's an old maintenance path. It follows the Liverpool line then goes over the old Wigan line and does a sharp turn to run parallel to it. There were plenty of singing robins, chiffchaffs and blackcaps and the willow warbler was singing from the Liverpool line.

Walking down to Firs Road
Abandoned railway to the left, houses to the right.

As the path joined Firs Road I noticed a little path up the embankment to the abandoned line. I wondered if it was possible to walk it down over the canal, past Partington and onto the stretch across Carrington Moss into Broadheath. I decided this wasn't a walk for today and went and got the bus back to the Trafford Centre.