Mosses

Common darter, Little Woolden Moss 

It was one of those days where I could have spent all day deciding where I was going out for a walk. The aches and pains after yesterday's fairly short wander round convinced me that i needed to get some exercise and it wasn't until I got off the train at Irlam and walked over to Astley Road that I was sure where I was going.

It was a grey day and cooler than advertised though the wind was a lot softer than it has been. It was a fairly quiet walk out of town. Robins sang but there were no more sign of house sparrows on Zinnia Close than there were in my back garden. 

The turf fields were busy with woodpigeons. Try as I may, none of the big clods of earth turned out to be partridges. Over on the other side of Roscoe Road some black-headed gulls accompanied the woodpigeons. A buzzard drifted off over towards Barton Moss. Another flew down Roscoe Road and joined a kestrel in a big tree near the farmstead. Buzzards and kestrels seem to tolerate each other reasonably well, neither have any time for sparrowhawks.

Astley Road 

The hedgerows along Astley Road were quietly busy with robins and titmice, the tops of the birch trees buzzing and twittering with goldfinches.  I spent a while making sure they were all goldfinches, just in case. Blackbirds rummaged in the undergrowth and somewhere a mistle thrush was taking exception to me. There was no question where the great spotted woodpecker objecting to me was, I looked up in the big conker tree, we saw each other and it was away. It provided noises off as I walked past the Jack Russell's gate.

Pied wagtail

Pied wagtail,the same bird as above looking remarkably pale now its black rump is hidden.

I'd been wondering where all the pied wagtails were. They were all around the Lawn Turf farmstead and the turf field across the road from there. At least a hundred of them and a large proportion juveniles, including a few birds which may have been white wagtails rather than just very pale pied wagtails. There was a handful of meadow pipits in the mix on the field as well as small flock of linnets and a juvenile wheatear. 

Pied wagtail 

Starlings
Sing along, you all know the tune.

Starlings congregated on the telegraph wires and paid no need as a male kestrel flew close by. Further along, a buzzard sat on a fence post watching jackdaws tiptoeing around a flock of sheep in a pen. A cormorant passed by, perhaps heading for the fishery.

Astley Road 

Approaching Four Lanes End 

The wind had ceased and the air got warm and heavy. Large whites, small whites and red admirals fluttered about the wayside, speckled woods along the hedgerows. A few common darters, all looking over-mature now in shades of iron reds and greys, zipped by. For once a migrant hawker settled on the ground to sun itself as best could but was off like a shot the moment the camera appeared. 

Lavender Lane

Another kestrel perched with woodpigeons on the telephone line across Lavender Lane. The first chiffchaff of the day squeaked from the hawthorn hedgerow. I stopped to scan round in the hopes of finding stonechats and accidentally flushed a dozen pheasants test had been feeding in the wayside. A big female sparrowhawk shot across the rough pasture at thistletop height before wheeling round and settling in the trees on the edge of Little Woolden Moss.

Little Woolden Moss 

Little Woolden Moss was phenomenally quiet. A chaffinch and a wren marked my entrance from the car park and a chiffchaff squeaked from the willow scrub. Out in the open there was me, some craneflies and common darters. The darters kept flying over to keep me company so I wouldn't be lonely.

I noticed someone way over on the other side on the path that's not available to the public, I'm pretty sure it was the chap who does the Carbon Footprint surveys. He flushed a small flock of linnets which flew over into the willow scrub. On the pools there wasn't so much as a duck or a moorhen. A passing female-type marsh harrier was some consolation.

Common darter 

At the site where the hide used to be before i started coming here I had a sit down in the company of some more common darters. As I was getting up to move on I was joined by another birdwatcher and we both commented on how quiet it was. I wished him luck and moved on, almost immediately bumping into a small copper feeding on the last of the heather flowers.

Small copper 

Bolete?

I hadn't realised I had decided to walk down Moss Road back into Irlam until I walked through the gate and joined the path leading to the road. There were lots of fungi at the base of the hedge, a giant puffball a little larger than a football being the only one I could identify with any confidence. Over the other side the fields had been ploughed and were being rummaged over by a few carrion crows and magpies and a pair of stock doves.

Giant puffball

These I'm not remotely sure of

It was a very quiet walk down Moss Road. Jackdaws and woodpigeons rummaged in fields, robins struck poses in hedgerow and lesser black-backs headed to the roost at Woolston Eyes.

Cadishead Moss 

New Moss Wood 

I didn't go into New Moss Wood, I didn't have the legs for it. The birds came out to me, a mixed tit flock flitting to and fro between the wood and a stand of conifers on the other side of the road. Blue tits chased each other about the branches. A couple of male goldcrests had a spat. Coal tits fed at the tree tops, chaffinches and great tits in the lower branches and chiffchaffs and long-tailed tits bounced through all points in between. Half a dozen pheasants fed under the conifers.

The first house sparrow of the day was chirping from a rose bush in the allotments on the way back to the station.