Mosses

Blackbird, Irlam Moss

It was a bright, sunny day, surprisingly mild after a bitingly cold night. I wondered what I was going to do with it and decided I was due another wander over Irlam Moss and Chat Moss, perhaps having a look at Little Woolden Moss, too.

As I stood waiting for the train to Irlam the clouds started rolling in. It didn't look like it was likely to rain, though, and nor did it even though it got progressively cloudier as the afternoon went on.

A coal tit sang at Irlam Station when I got off the train. Woodpigeons, blackbirds and goldfinches sang in gardens, I was nearly out of town when the first robins started singing.

Blackbird
The same bird as above. I was standing at the side of the road a while letting cars pass and she was happy to pose.

The hedgerows on Astley Road were fizzing with small birds. Robins and goldfinches sang; great tits, blue tits, chaffinches and greenfinches bounced about the treetops; blackbirds, robins, song thrushes and wrens rummaged about the undergrowth. These hedgerows haven't been that busy in months. 

Looking over towards Roscoe Road 

Out in the fields carrion crows chased each other about, or chased magpies, or were chased by gangs of magpies. Four cock pheasants held a beauty contest in a corner of a field over by Roscoe Road. The usual kestrels were notably absent. Unfortunately, for some reason the road was very busy with cars today so I didn't always give the birdwatching my fullest attention. I'd otherwise timed my visit right: Roscoe Road is closed for resurfacing next week and this stretch of Astley Road is closed the week after.

Astley Road 

As I stood on the verge to let a convoy of cars pass by at Prospect Grange I was joined by a party of long-tailed tits which spent the time tutting at me before moving on to investigate some hawthorn bushes. One of the drivers was a chap I bump into quite often who is very keen on owls. He told me he'd just visited Holly Bush Lane, just the other side of Rixton, and had seen lots of corn buntings and skylarks today. Which is encouraging, locally corn buntings are becoming in very short supply.

Astley Road 

Crossing the motorway the road got quieter, and so did the hedgerows. A goldcrest was the first small bird I saw in the trees, there weren't many titmice or robins about until the stable and paddocks further along. A few carrion crows and magpies rummaged about on the turf fields, there were only a couple of pied wagtails and they were staying on a farmhouse rooftop.

Jelly ear fungus

When I got to Four Lanes End the first thing I saw was a couple of woodpigeons perched on the telephone wires. The second thing I saw was a short-eared owl hunting over the ground below. The owl floated about at knee height before rising and powering across the field. It wheeled back and floated down whence it came, suddenly stopped, spun round on a wing tip and plunged into the long grass just below. The pounce was unsuccessful, it rose immediately and started quartering the field. 

Short-eared owl

Short-eared owl

As it approached the far corner, where there was a small crowd of spectators on the edge of Little Woolden Moss, another owl rose from the grass. There was no obvious direct communication between the two birds but they kept their distance from each other as they hunted over the field. At one point the second bird dropped down and was immediately joined by a kestrel. Kestrels often steal catches off short-eared owls, this time they both went away empty-handed.

I watched the owls a while from the corner by Astley Road, decided not to join the people in the other corner, turned and made my way along Twelve Yards Road.

Twelve Yards Road 

It was late afternoon and the jackdaws and woodpigeons were going to bed and the song thrushes were singing. A flock of skylarks rose from a field of rough and headed over towards Little Woolden Moss. A flight of mallards appeared from Heaven knows where and followed suit.

Chaffinches were gathering to roost in the hedgerows by the farmhouse while robins and great tits retired to the brambles in the land drains. I thought more chaffinches were coming in to roost in the willow plantations by the road and was surprised to find it was half a dozen redpolls. Overhead lesser black-backs headed for Woolston Ees, mallards headed for the pools on Croxden's Moss and magpies flew in to roost in a copse of oak trees.

False turkey tail fungus

Song thrushes, robins and woodpigeons were having one last song before bedtime as I turned into Cutnook Lane. A flock of chaffinches disappeared into the trees, blackbirds and titmice into the bracken. By the time I got to the bottom of the road there were just a few carrion crows and a mistle thrush in the fields. I crossed over the motorway and struck dead lucky getting the next 100 bus to the Trafford Centre. It's nice when things turn out.

Cutnook Lane