Worsley Woods

Teal, Old Warke Dam

It was a slightly milder, but still cool, day and the wind was still making itself felt. The spadgers in the back garden somehow managed to demolish a feeder full of fat balls in just over a day (even the magpies didn't get much of a look-in). I've been having a lazy few days so I thought I'd best get a walk under my boots. I went over to the Trafford Centre to play bus station bingo, a toss-up between Pennington Flash and Amberswood, and my bus got me in during that mad gap in the new timetable where there's a half-hour wait and the 126 and 132 arrive together. So I got the 22 to Monton and walked up to Worsley via Duke's Drive and Worsley Woods. Which turned out to work well, what parts of the walk that weren't sheltered by trees were along old railway cuttings.

Carrion crow, Duke's Drive 

I got off at The Bluebell, which sounds a bit Stanley Lupino but there we go, and walked past the already crocus-strewn Monton Green and onto Duke's Drive. Robins and woodpigeons sang in the trees and they were soon joined by blue tits, coal tits and great tits. Carrion crows and magpies rummaged about in the verges, jackdaws and ring-necked parakeets made a racket in the trees in the parkland and the golf course and squirrels scampered about as if there weren't a host of dogs being taken on their lunchtime walkies. A nuthatch kept calling in the avenue of trees but I couldn't place it. I had a bit more luck, eventually, pinpointing the singing song thrush. It was a very pleasant walk.

Duke's Drive

A family of long-tailed tits bounced through the trees as I approached the old Worsley Station and a goldcrest struggled to make itself heard against a background of blue tits, great tits, goldfinches and coal tits. I had no more luck spotting the nuthatch calling by the station than I did the one on Duke's Drive.

For some reason the light at the end of the tunnel

gets smaller the closer you get.

The passage through the little tunnel under Worsley Road marked a change, the robins still sang but there wasn't a lot else about.

I climbed the steps up to the path through the woods to Old Warke Dam. A mixed tit flock including a troupe of long-tailed tits bounced quietly through the trees, I actually saw a nuthatch this time. Unlike the chaffinches, which invariably saw me first.

Climbing up to the woodland path

The Aviary at Old Wark Dam 

I heard the teal on the dam pool well before I got there. There were only half a dozen of them but their whistles penetrated the woodland. I arrived at the lake to find the usual motley crew of mallards, coots and black-headed gulls. Interestingly my walking down to the end of the pier to look over the other side of the pool didn't worry the teal one bit so I got some close photos of them.

Teal

Coot

I carried on walking past Old Warke Dam back into Worsley Woods and dropped down to Worsley Brook. Unsurprisingly the going was very muddy. Woodpigeons, magpies and parakeets clattered about in the trees. There were plenty of blue tits, great tits, robins and blackbirds about but it was the coal tits doing all the singing.

Worsley Brook 

Velvet shanks, I think

I was taking some photographs of fungi on a fallen tree when a grey wagtail came to see what I was doing.

Grey wagtail 

Further along a dozen mallards were chased off the brook by a frisky and already very wet labrador.

Walking up from the brook

I climbed the steps up from the brook and walked into Worsley for the bus back to the Trafford Centre. Canada geese and moorhens puttered about on the canal at Worsley Delph and the jackdaws had started going to bed. Given the weather I was inclined to follow suit but I had a social engagement later on so I had to trust in the revivifying nature of a pot of tea. Which worked, as it always does.