Wigan bumper bundle

Reed bunting, Amberswood 

I've been missing out on the passage of common scoters through the region so I thought I'd go over to Scotman's Flash in Wigan where at least one's been settled for a couple of days. There's also a scaup that's been lingering, I don't "need" either for the year list but it would be good to see them and it was a nice day for a walk by the flashes. I got the 132 to Wigan but as we were getting into Hindley I decided it was too nice a day to spend caught up in Wigan town centre traffic so I got off at Gregory Street and walked to the flashes via Amberswood and Ince Cemetery. I can wait for a rainy day to go and see if the golden colossus statue is back in his rightful place.

Amberswood, walking in from Manchester Road 

I'd barely set foot onto the path into Amberswood when I was hit by a cacophony of birdsong. A blackcap competed with a robin and a chiffchaff and they were joined by a dunnock, a wren and a coal tit. I hadn't gone far when a blackbird joined in and a song thrush could be heard further in the wood. It didn't take long for great tits and blue tits to make themselves known, though the blue tits were generally too busy rummaging about in the gorse bushes to get much singing done.

Gorse 

Amberswood 

Things were a little quieter as I left the hedgerows and walked through the woods to the lake. A distant great spotted woodpecker drummed in the trees. A nuthatch drowned out the songs of robins, coal tits and chiffchaffs for a brief moment. And for once the wrens quietly went about their business, at least until they decided that human passers-by needed singing off the territory.

Reed bunting

Reed buntings had the run of the feeders at the corner of the lake, a couple of chaffinches briefly passing by. The titmice and goldfinches were staying in the trees. I couldn't work out if it was one or two Cetti's warblers in the reeds, there was definitely one wandering up and down and the possible second further along might have been the same bird following me down the path.

Mallards and mute swans 

Amberswood Lake 

Mallards, coots, mallards and a great crested grebe were taking it easy on the lake. Unlike the black-headed gulls which spent more time quarrelling than bathing or loafing. Some of the first-Winter birds were starting to get their brown hoods, in contrast to the immature brown wing feathers.

One of the dragonfly ponds 

Amberswood 

I took the path towards Ince and Spring View. The sun brought out the butterflies as well as the singing birds: peacock butterflies fluttered about the verges or basked on top of bramble bushes, there were far fewer brimstones and they kept to the open rides.

Jays

Two pairs of jays were disputing the ownership of a hawthorn bush. There was no shortage of hawthorn bushes but they both wanted this one. The usual raucous calls were subdued and sounded all the more menacing for it. Crests were raised and fluffed up in anger and the blue patches on their wings were made vividly prominent. One pair slunk quietly into the depths of the bush while the other continued to voice and signal their claims to it.

Jays

The path passed through open areas with reedy dragonfly ponds and patches of light wet woodland. I kept an eye and ear out for willow tits but it wasn't my day for it. There were more singing coal tits than great tits, and far fewer singing blue tits. Long-tailed tits skittered about hawthorn bushes in pairs. Every so often there'd be greenfinches or goldfinches in the tree tops, a couple of times it was a couple of siskins. Way overhead a pair of buzzards called as they circled each other on the thermals. Approaching Spring View the little fishing lodges had coots and mallards pottering about, the largest also had a mute swan that seemed to be on its own.

Ince Cemetery 

I'd remembered the paths right and emerged onto Wigan Road opposite the cemetery. I crossed and walked down Cemetery Road, over the West Coast Main Line and through the little industrial estate where the road became the path through to the Wigan Flashes. Chiffchaffs, blackcaps and robins sang in the trees as I walked by.

By Turner's Flash 

Turner's Flash is heard rather than seen along this path. I was hearing a lot of black-headed gulls, coots and Canada geese behind the trees. I heard them all the more when a buzzard left a pathside tree and floated over that way. Jays and magpies called in the trees and woodpigeons clattered about. Blackbirds, robins and song thrushes rummaged about in the undergrowth and the singing great tits took over from the coal tits.

I bumped into another birdwatcher when I reached the canal. He'd seen a couple of whooper swans on Scotman's Flash as well as three common scoters swimming together on the far side. As we were talking both of ours first orange tip butterfly flew by.

Scotman's Flash 

Reed buntings and a Cetti's warbler sang fitfully in the reedbed by Scotman's Flash. A few coots and great crested grebes pottered about this corner of the flash, mallards lurked under the near bank. Over the far side Canada geese and tufted ducks drifted about by the bank and at least one Canada goose was nesting under the trees. 

The whooper swans were distant

The flash opened up as I walked along and now I could see the two whooper swans hiding in plain sight amongst a loose herd of mute swans and a raft of herring gulls and lesser black-backs. Tufted ducks and coots drifted about, the tufties in small rafts and the coots in ones and twos. The three distant "coots" swimming in tight formation became three common scoters as I walked further up the path. I'd kept an eye on them as being something unusual as three coots swimming that close together would have pecked each other to death. There were more cormorants actively fishing than loafing.

Scotman's Flash 

A scaup has been reported here every day recently. The chap I'd been speaking to earlier was walking back and we let on. We compared notes and I mentioned I hadn't had any luck finding the scaup. He'd seen it and was determined that I should see it too. Luckily it hadn't gone far from where he'd first seen it and he picked it up in his telescope. It was bathing just by a group of tufties by the far bank, I'd been seeing it but unable to identify it as anything different. I bade him thanks and he went on his way.

Pearson's Flash 

I toddled into Poolstock, keeping an eye on the flashes either side of the canal. I was getting better, though distant, views of the scoters on Scotman's Flash. A pair of gadwalls were with the mute swans on Pearson's Flash. There were just mallards on Westwood Flash.  Meanwhile, on the canal, a mute swan was busy showing its irritation with pairs of Canada geese.

Poolstock 

I'd had a long, meandering walk and was flagging a bit. I decided I'd get the 639 to the bus station rather than walking down the canal into Wallgate, there was one due in five minutes. This turned out to be a tactical error: the five minutes became twelve and stayed due in twelve minutes for the next twenty, in the end it was thirty-seven minutes late. The sunk cost fallacy is my failing at bus stops, I've too often given up and had my bus sail past fifty yards down the road. I got the train back from Wigan and made the connection with the bus home. I wasn't going to let one bus spoil a very nice day's outing.