Stalybridge

Walkerwood Reservoir 

It was a mizzly sort of day. I've not had much exercise this week so I thought I'd give the knees and wind a bit of an airing with a walk through Stalybridge Country Park and up to Brushes Reservoir. I told myself I wasn't going to carry on over Swineshaw and into Tintwistle. In the event the question didn't arise.

Stalybridge Country Park 

I got the 348 from Stalybridge Station, got off at Parkfields, walked up Grafton Street and then into the country park. At first it was very quiet indeed, just the sound of the jackdaws and woodpigeons on the rooftops behind me. Then I bumped into the first mixed tit flock, the squeak of a chiffchaff and the tutting of long-tailed tits putting me on the alert. There was a big family of long-tailed tits, a couple of chiffchaffs, at least half a dozen blue tits and a couple of pairs of great tits. This time of year I'd expect them to still be skulking undercover but like so many other things Autumn has come early for mixed tit flocks. I bumped into another up near Brushes Road, this one including a few goldfinches and a nuthatch in the mix. In between, a couple of jays were being surprisingly showy and a great spotted woodpecker called from the treetops.

A willow warbler called and nearly sang in the trees by Brushes Road. Swallows skimmed over the dam of Walkerwood Reservoir. Absolutely nothing was on the water or the edges of the reservoir.

Brushes Road 

Stalybridge Country Park 

Walkerwood Reservoir 

Chiffchaffs and robins squeaked and blue tits churred in the wayside along Brushes Road. Swallows hawked low over the hillside and its grazing rabbits. Lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls drifted up the valley and a kestrel hovered low over the crest of the hill.

Brushes Road 

Walkerwood Reservoir 

It was good walking but my wind was struggling. I've been like this a couple of days, it might be the sudden change in humidity, I may have caught my first Summer cold since lockdown, it might just be male pattern hypochondria. At the gate to Brushes Reservoir I stopped to catch my breath and have a good cough. There was no question of my being daft enough to trot blithely over Swineshaw. I decided I'd see the reservoir then make my way back.

Brushes Road 

A mixed tit flock — blue tits, great tits, chiffchaffs and chaffinches, worked its way through the hawthorns, heathers and bilberries on the wayside: woodpigeons clattered about in the trees; robins and dunnocks fossicked about the roadsides. I had a scan over the reservoir and couldn't see anything except swallows flying down the valley.

Brushes Reservoir 

At this point I got a 'phone call about a family emergency so I started back at a rush. At the top of Besom Lane my brother rang to say all was sorted and there was no need to rush back. I stopped to catch my breath and watched a crowd of carrion crows and jackdaws fussing about in the field by the lane. Another mixed tit flock bounced through the hedgerow, a large flock this time which incorporated a big flock of goldfinches. It may have been a big flock of goldfinches incorporating a mixed tit flock. A male blackcap gorging on haws was a nice surprise, right at that moment I was in the market for a boost to my morale. A jay flew up the hill and did its bit for the restoration of oak woodlands, caching at least three acorns in the grass. 

Besom Lane 

I walked down into Millbrook and waited for the bus to Stalybridge, watching the pigeons and jackdaws flocking prior to going to roost. I got a 'phone call telling me to hurry back, which I was doing anyway. When I got back I found there had been absolutely no need to hurry after all. Which wasn't the pleasant surprise it should have been.