Bickershaw Country Park

Canada goslings

Unlike yesterday, this morning I only caught the woodpigeon solo in the dawn chorus and I overslept through the alarm, which was a nuisance as I had errands to run before doing anything else. Errands begat errands, which was another nuisance as the oversleeping made me feel like a sandbagged tortoise and every joint in my body had an unfavourable opinion about the change in the weather. I shelved all plans, got a pot of tea down me and wondered what I was going to do with the afternoon. 

I decided that gardening wasn't an option as the latest new arrival stepped onto the scene. One of the adult robins escorted a youngster into the rose bushes and left it there to wait to be fed. The young dunnock was deep in the gooseberry bush and there was a young blackbird around somewhere, the female was ferrying beakfuls of worms down into the holly bush. I thought I'd best leave them in peace.

Juvenile robin

I went over to the Trafford Centre and played bus station bingo with a view to going somewhere for half an hour or so's quiet potter about. The 126 came in first so I headed off to Leigh. I didn't want to revisit Pennington Flash so soon, so where to go? For a few giddy moments I thought I could get off in Astley and walk down through Astley Moss and Chat Moss into Irlam. For a few giddy moments. It's a fair old drag when I've got the energy to do it. Then I remembered I hadn't been to Bickershaw Country Park yet this year. It's surrounded on three sides by fairly frequent bus services so if the worst came to the worst I could nibble about a corner then retreat to a bus stop.

I got the 609 and got off at Garvin Jones Grove, the stop  next to the entrance on the North side of the country park by Diggle Flash. A chaffinch in a tree by the bus stop took exception even before I'd stepped off and it escorted me out of the car park, leaving me once I started down the steps to the flash.

Diggle Flash

The trees and bushes were filled with songbirds and I even managed to see some of the willow warblers and robins. As I approached Diggle Flash, more a big pond than a lake, whitethroats and a reed warbler joined the chorus. I peered over one of the anglers' gates to see what was on the water and the reed warbler came over to check me out before deciding I was nothing to see and resuming singing. A small raft of tufted ducks and two pairs of great crested grebes drifted over the flash, the mallards and coots were more active, though not to any obvious purpose.

Bickershaw Country Park 

A bit of hawthorn

I wandered on my way. I don't have an instinctive feel for Bickershaw Country Park and can rarely manage to go the same way twice or find particular spots I'm looking for. I need to visit far more often. The hedgerows were busy with singing blackcaps and willow warblers, blackbirds sang in the trees or fossicked about in the verges and titmice were in stealth ninja mode, breaking cover rarely to flit between trees and bushes. Goldfinches were in as close as they get to stealth mode, they can't resist twittering when they break cover. I was hoping to hear grasshopper warblers out in the open but had no luck today though there were more than plenty of whitethroats. Overhead there was a steady traffic of carrion crows, jackdaws and lesser black-backs, the gulls tending to wheel high in the air before going wherever they were off to.

Alder beetles
Some of the alder saplings had doilies rather than leaves.

Bickershaw Country Park 

As I approached Fir Tree Flash reed buntings joined the songscape.

Reed bunting

The sun started to poke through the clouds as I arrived at Fir Tree Flash. A mute swan sat on her nest and pairs of shovelers chugged about the drowned willows. Further along, pairs of mallards dozed on the bank and Canada geese made a fearful row over on the other side of the flash. As far as I could determine, the commotion was caused by passing geese getting too close to sitting geese and the partners rushing in to support and egg on the combatants. In contrast, the coots were being unusually well-behaved dutiful parents.

Fir Tree Flash 

I had a chat with a couple of ladies who'd been watching a pair of great crested grebes feeding their young. I caught up with the grebes later on, the youngsters were keeping to the cover of the reeds and coming out to be fed. Every so often the male would take exception to one or other passerby, bark like a small terrier and the youngsters disappeared into the reeds with barely a ripple. A pair of Canada geese paraded their goslings along the bankside.

Canada goslings

The sun came out and so did the large whites and orange tip butterflies. Half a dozen swifts chased round each other high overhead. I wandered round the rucks South of the flash, adding the Cetti's warbler singing in a waterside bramble to the day's tally and hearing lots more blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers along the way.

Bickershaw Country Park 

The intention was to drift over towards Plank Lane but I got distracted by possibly hearing a grasshopper warbler over a rise. When I got there I couldn't hear anything because the police helicopter was doing a circuit of the area and passed overhead a few times. I followed the path I was on into into Firs Park then I had a quick potter about the park and the lake before getting the bus into Hindley Green and thence the 132 back to the Trafford Centre.

Firs Park