Irlam Moss

Irlam Moss 

The blackbird made another early start for the dawn chorus and provoked an answer from the one claiming the school grounds. The collared dove and woodpigeons waited until there was signs of daybreak. It was a busy morning for errands and by the time I'd finally got a pot of tea I didn't have a lot of get up and go about me, or even less than usual. I dragged myself out of the house, got the train into Irlam and had a nosy round Irlam Moss — walking up Astley Road and walking back down Roscoe Road and marvelling at the difference a six inch thickness of tarmac can make to a road surface.

Astley Road 

House sparrows, greenfinches, goldfinches and great tits fidgeted about in the hedgerows and blue tits foraged in pairs in the trees. I didn't see or hear any chiffchaffs or long-tailed tits until I got to the junction with Roscoe Road. Robins, wrens, blackbirds and a song thrush sang by the wayside, chaffinches sang in trees on the field margins. The woodpigeons were busy either feeding in the fields or clattering about amorously in the treetops. 

The fields between Astley Road and Moss Road were busy with jackdaws and carrion crows. The stripped turf fields between Astley Road and Roscoe Road looked very quiet at a glance but the binoculars quickly picked up the pheasants and magpies in the field margins and the blackbirds and song thrushes on the ground. A lesser black-back that flew in for a few minutes was pleasingly conspicuous. I heard the pair of lapwings a good ten minutes before I finally saw them.

A buzzard floated high overhead and drifted down towards New Moss Wood. I was disappointed not to see any kestrels on the fields by Astley Road, as I walked down Roscoe Road I bumped into the male kestrel that's usually kicking around. In the distance a clod of earth in one of the fields moved and turned out to be a male grey partridge out on a walk by itself. Being a grey partridge it was more of a scuttle than a walk and it very quickly became invisible again despite the lack of vegetation on the field.

Roscoe Road
The chimney stacks in the distance are the Carrington Cloud Factory

I pottered about for an hour. It was one of those afternoons that was "a bit quiet" or "plenty about," depending on your mood. I decided I was in a *plenty about" mood despite my pretty much sleepwalking along the way. The knees confirmed the weather forecast's prediction that tomorrow's going to be cool and wet. Ah well, the bird baths in my back garden needed topping up.