Hindley

Broad-bodied chaser

I've been going out for walks looking to find birds and I'm finding butterflies and dragonflies so I thought today I'd go out looking for butterflies and dragonflies and see what birds turn up. Mid-afternoon I headed out to Amberswood to look for Norfolk hawkers.

I got off the 132 at the Gregory Street stop and walked into Amberswood at the Manchester Road entrance. Almost immediately I bumped into a Southern hawker and felt a bit hurt by its complete lack of interest in me. To be fair, there was a banquet of tiny flies rising from the brambles.

Walking in from Manchester Road 

The only time of the year the gorse isn't in flower

A young great spotted woodpecker was calling from the trees about fifty yards deep into the woods. The call was so prolonged and insistent I had to double-check it wasn't a green woodpecker. The birds closer to hand were nearly all silent, an occasional contact call from a blue tit or great tit, a tut from a robin or a wren, the odd rattle from a magpie for five seconds of song from a woodpigeon. The most conspicuous birds were the dunnocks, which sort of tells you how it was.

Holly blue

In contrast, the holly blues, red admirals and large whites were all over the wayside brambles and nettles. The holly blues stayed still long enough to let me try and take their photos, something I've giving up on at home. Approaching the lake I was rather surprised to hear a couple of garden warblers singing at each other from either side of the path. The only other warbler I'd heard in the woods was the occasional squeak from a chiffchaff.

Amberswood Lake 

Reed warblers quietly sang to themselves at the lakeside and every so often I'd see one flitting between patches of reeds. Young blue tits monopolised the fat feeders at the corner by the paths, the adults fidgeted their way through the reeds. I found just the one reed bunting, and that was heard not seen. Reed buntings prefer to sit on a vantage point to sing, this one was deep in the depths of the reeds. 

Broad-bodied chaser 

The dragonflies were aggressively more conspicuous. Half a dozen brown hawkers zipped round me as I tried to see the reed bunting, the nearest passes close enough for me to hear their wing beats as they shot past my ear. A lot of the time they ran straight at me, veering away at the last minute like a game of chicken. For all there were lots of midges and mosquitos about none of them were getting close enough to land, let alone bite. A very unnerving alternative to citronella repellents. 

There were a couple of smaller hawkers, more stubby than the Southern hawker that passed by and predominantly brown with green stripes. I looked for the green eyes that would confirm them as Norfolk hawkers, easier said than done as they zipped around in the crowd. They were a lot shier than the brown hawkers, always keeping out of arm's reach. It took a few minutes before I could be sure they were Norfolk hawkers — head on, the brown hawkers had bright chestnut brown, almost red, faces while those of the Norfolk hawkers looked pale yellow, it was only when they veered and I got a side-on view that the milky bright green of the eyes became apparent and it took a few goes to be sure I wasn't just wishing it so. Another puzzling factor, almost certainly down to refractions and reflections, was that when they were flying at me the Norfolk hawkers appeared to have a golden sheen to the wings, nothing like as deep as the rich amber tones of the brown hawkers. Seen from below the wings were dead clear. The broad-bodied chasers posing for the camera on stems were a much more straightforward proposition.

Broad-bodied chaser 

Broad-bodied chaser 

Amberswood Lake 

Out on the lake the great crested grebes had a nest on the go, a couple of young black-headed gulls sat on the water catching emerging midges and the coots were busy feeding their second brood. A couple of dozen mallards loafed on the bankside muttering at passersby.

Meadow brown

On the way out to Liverpool Road the drifts of thistles by the pathside were buzzing with bees and butterflies. For all that there were plenty of commas, red admirals, peacocks and painted ladies the meadow browns and gatekeepers outnumbered them three to one.

Gatekeeper 

I crossed the road over to Low Hall where woodpigeons and song thrushes sang in the trees. Mallards, moorhens and the pair of mute swans moved in slow motion as they fed on the pond. Even the coots didn't have the energy to squabble. Titmice bounced through the trees, blackbirds and robins disappeared into the shadows under trees and the first jackdaws and woodpigeons flew overhead to roost. 

Low Hall 

There were fewer butterflies about than at Amberswood, but lots more damselflies. The dipping pool, particularly, was busy with common blue damselflies and I noticed a couple of blue-tailed damselflies zipping through some sedges.

Common blue damselfly 

I checked the bus times and found that the 559 to Bolton was due in ten minutes. Given that I'd miss the 132 back to the Trafford Centre whichever way I got back to Hindley town centre I decided to get the 559 and get the 20 back to the Trafford Centre from Over Hulton. In the ten minutes I waited for the 559 there was a definite passage of peacock butterflies over the road from Low Hall to Amberswood, perhaps they were heading to roost, too. Or perhaps they'd heard the thistles were doing good business.