Owt for a lark

Shore lark, Mow Cop

I was about to leave the house when there was a panic in the garden with spadgers bashing against the window, something that the adults never do because it's so filthy. In the end the young sparrowhawk causing the furore gave up the chase and sat in the rose bushes to catch its breath.

Sparrowhawk

The sparrowhawk had had a busy morning judging by the feathers scattered round the station platform.

It was going to be a fine but windy day. I decided I'd chase after the shore lark that's been showing well on Mow Cop, just on the Cheshire side of the border with Staffordshire. It looked straightforward to get to where it was reported and it looked like I should get better views than I did with my first one at Oglet last year.

I got the Stoke train to Kidsgrove. Woodpigeons seemed to be on ration past Stockport, they were one every kilometre and sometimes not even that. Even the pigeons at the stations at Cheadle Hulme and Macclesfield were no-shows. We were approaching Adlington when I saw a red kite floating over a field, its tail twitching and turning in the wind. It's an odd thing: if I see a kite in Yorkshire I recognise it immediately as a kite, I see them so rarely this side of the Pennines that when I see one I have a long moment where I'm asking myself what I'm seeing.

Mallard

I got off at Kidsgrove, crossed the bright orange Macclesfield Canal and its gang of mallards and had a short wait for the 95 bus which goes through Mow Cop on its way to Biddulph.

It wasn't long before I was getting off the bus by St Thomas's in Mow Cop. Google Maps said to follow the road down and round and up onto Castle Road but I noticed a footpath up the hill directly opposite the church and took that instead. Conveniently enough, I only had to cross Castle Road for the little road I needed to follow up the hill to the field where the lark had been reported.

Walking up to Castle Road 

In the teeth of the wind

Turning the corner at the top, where it meets the Gritstone Trail and the teeth of a strong wind, I could see a small knot of birdwatchers by a gate. I walked down slowly and carefully, scanning the field as I went, hoping I wouldn't spook the shore lark if it was there. As I got closer it became apparent that they were looking at something in the next field along and just behind the stone wall separating the fields.

Shore lark

I got to the gate, looked over, and there was the shore lark, all on its own and in plain sight.

The lark had stopped for a preen when I arrived

Every so often it would look over at us birdwatchers…

…have a bit of a fidget…

…then get back to preening

It spent the next few minutes preening, stopping every so often to stare at a handful of birdwatchers as if to wonder if they were a thing. It didn't seem any more bothered by us as by the cattle in the field. Once it finished preening it gave its feathers a good shake, gave an odd little chirp and flew a few yards deeper into the field. A couple of the birdwatchers crept along the stone wall to try and pick it up again; I left them to it, I was plenty happy with the view I'd had.

Looking over to the Peak District 

I took in the views, which were wonderful. I debated walking round for a look at the ruined castle but I was already feeling too windswept and interesting for words. 

Looking over towards the Cheshire Plain

St Thomas's Church

I retreated downhill for the bus back to Kidsgrove.

Macclesfield Canal 

I had half an hour to wait for my train at Kidsgrove so I had a potter about the canal. Mallards bathed, moorhens pottered about and a fair-sized flock of house sparrows made a lot of noise as they flitted about the bushes either side of the canal.

Moorhen

I took a circuitous route home. The woodpigeons were still on ration in Cheshire.