A canalside dawdle

Mallards

The morning started with the first three-figure flock of black-headed gulls I've seen on the school playing field in ages. A hundred and thirty-five of them, all panting in the heat of the morning.

It was a hot and cloudy day, I'd had a busy morning and I'd decided to get the hospital visit done and dusted before going for a walk (patient almost ready to come home, thanks for asking). Coming out I played bus stop bingo: if the 20 came I'd most likely go for a walk over Cutacre, if anything went to the Trafford Centre I'd get a bus into Chorlton for a walk in the Mersey Valley. I didn't want a walk over the mosses in this weather. So the 35 to Leigh turned up first. Whenever I aim to catch that I'm unlucky. Anyhow, the rules of the game is the rules of the game so I got on and started wondering where I was going. I didn't want another visit to Pennington Flash so soon after the last one. It was too warm to explore whether that path in Alder Forest really does lead to Botany Bay Wood. Worsley Woods would be busy with people and barren of birds. I could have a wander over Bickershaw Country Park or that walk from Worsley to Astley…

I got off at Butts Bridge in Leigh and walked down the Bridgewater Canal to Astley.

Blue-tailed damselfly 

The canalside house sparrows flitted to and fro and a few mallards loafed about. A coal tit called loudly from a garden corner. Electric blue lights zipped about the canal surface. A couple were common blue damselflies going about their business. The vast majority were blue-tailed damselflies. Nearly all the butterflies were large whites, and there were plenty of them. Given the abundance of blackberries and nettles I was surprised only to see singles of red admiral and speckled wood.

Canal Turn 

South of the canal

The barley fields between the canal and the East Lancs Road were ripe and golden and full of woodpigeons. At first glance there'd just be a few of them flying around. Every so often a bird-scaring device would go off and there'd be an eruption from the depths, crowds of woodpigeons taking to the air, and just as suddenly disappearing back into the fields. Every so often there'd be an occasional carrion crow or a couple of jackdaws, just to relieve the monotony.

I carried on along the canal. Moorhens puttered about the water's edge. Chiffchaffs, great tits and robins were squeaks in wayside bushes. Woodpigeons barged about in hawthorn bushes. Just as I'd given up on swifts or hirundines a couple of sand martins passed overhead. Swallows hawked over the canalside houses of Marsland Green and crowds of house sparrows bustled about in brambles. Somewhere over by the East Lancs Road a juvenile buzzard shouted for its dinner.

Bridgewater Canal 

A Southern hawker passed by, pausing only to come over and see if I was a thing. Brown hawkers are, for me, the archetypal canal dragonfly and sure enough, there they were chasing each other around bankside trees.

Arrowhead

A willow warbler called, appropriately enough, from a stand of willows. Great tits, chiffchaffs and robins squeaked, wrens churred, blue tits and long-tailed tits passed like shadows through the hedgerows.

Astley Green 

My approaching Astley Green coincided with flocks of starlings joining the woodpigeons in the fields, a flock of swallows hawking low over the canal, and robins and collared doves singing in the trees.

I got to Astley Green in time to see the departure of the 553 bus. I wasn't going to wait an hour for the next one and I didn't have the legs for walking down to Boothstown. Walking over the steep bridge over the canal I wondered if I'd have the legs for walking into Astley, and might have opted for sitting out that hour by the canalside watching the house martins flit by if I hadn't forgotten I'd have to cross the East Lancs Road en route. But I did forget, and I did walk into Astley and the 126 to the Trafford Centre arrived at the Coach Road bus stop the same time I did.