Leigh bumper bundle

Buzzard, Byrom Hall Wood

I really wasn't in the mood for doing anything at all today, it was even an effort to make a pot of tea. I saw the reports of an osprey at Pennington Flash. I wondered if I should go and see if I could see it. According the the reports the bird was at the West End in the area where Hey Brook runs into the flash. I could walk in from Slag Lane along the path past Mossley Hall then onto Byrom Lane to the sailing club, a very different type of walk to the usual one around the hides on the East side. After passing through the woodland edge by Slag Lane there's a long stretch of meadows and reedbeds which give views of the flash between the trees. If the osprey was in one of the trees along here or fishing over this end of the flash I might have a chance of seeing it. It would be hard luck if it was in the trees on the private land around Mossley Hall though in that case I might strike lucky from near the sailing club. And I had every expectation I'd be unlucky anyway, there hadn't been any reports of it since early doors and it had probably moved on.

So off I went.

I got the 588 to Plank Lane, got off just after the canal bridge and walked down Slag Lane and joined the path opposite the recycling centre. Robins, blackbirds, blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang by the roadside and willow warblers and song thrushes could be heard in the trees beyond. There were plenty more in the trees as I walked down the path.

The path to Mossley Hall 

The path crossed Hey Brook and I soon came out into more open meadow landscape and I caught my first sight of the flash, largely hidden by trees and reeds. The songs of a couple of reed warblers drifted over the meadows. A sedge warbler belted out a number from a bramble patch next to the path. Some angry words from passing jackdaws were directed at a sparrowhawk rising on the thermals above the meadows.

Pennington Flash 

I wasn't seeing anything larger than a woodpigeon in any of the trees by the flash, and not many of they. A few lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls flew by and jackdaws passed to and from overhead. I reached a large meadow with an open view of the flash and had a scan round. I couldn't see anything in any of the trees on either side of the flash. On the water there were mute swans by the near bank with pairs of gadwalls and tufted ducks. Further out, pairs of great crested grebes cruised about. A moment's flutter as a large white shape flew in was caused by a young great black-back.

Meadows by Pennington Flash 

I spent a few minutes allowing myself to be diverted by the orange tip butterflies skittering about the meadow before returning to the search. If I had no joy I'd walk on to the sailing club and try my luck. A few herring gulls flew past to join the raft of large gulls I could see in the distance. A heron flew into the mouth of the brook. Then I noticed something large rising above the rucks over on the other side of the flash, a big pale bird doing lazy circles as it rose on the thermals. I had a look through my binoculars fully expecting it to be another great black-back. It wasn't. Even at this distance it was obviously the osprey, luckily for me there's not a right lot looks like an osprey that isnt one. It came closer to the flash as it circled and I had a moment's hope it might be coming this way but it headed back and it soon became apparent that the circles were drifting over towards Plank Lane. I kept watching, just in case, but it kept its distance. Ah well, I'd had my bit of luck and seen it.

As I stood wondering what I wanted to do next a bird shot over at treetop height. "That's a dark-looking kestrel," said the boy birdwatcher looking at a hobby through his binoculars. In my defence, I'd had my surprise of the day with the osprey and wasn't expecting a bonus bird within a few minutes. Luckily it was a big open area so the bird kept in view long enough for the penny to drop.

Helmeted guineafowl

I'd learned my lesson and was on as close to an alert as I can manage these days as I followed the path past Mossley Hall and on to Byrom Lane. I was watching swallows zinging about when I realised there was a soft chuckling noise coming from the field behind me. The flock of guineafowl were almost hidden in the grass.

On reaching Byrom Lane I decided not to head for the sailing club then walk round to St Helens Road. Instead, I turned and walked back to Slag Lane, crossed the road and walked through Byrom Hall Wood into Lowton. 

Heading for Byrom Hall Wood 

It was a nice day and a nice walk. Swallows flitted about the farm buildings at Byrom Hall. A buzzard called as it floated by and off towards Abram. Three lapwings looked to.be headed for Pennington Flash. Greenfinches and whitethroats sang in the fields and hedgerows. Blackcaps, robins, chiffchaffs, willow warblers, blackbirds and wrens sang in the woods. Titmice quietly bounced through the trees, goldfinches twittered, and young magpies rattled at parents that expected them to get their own dinners by now.

Byrom Hall Wood 

A nice gnarly oak

Thinking I was taking a route straight through to Wigan Road I took a meandering footpath that seemed to go round the back of every house on the estate. I eventually got to Wigan Road and didn't have long to wait for the 610 and the start of the long journey home.

Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Black-necked grebe, High Rid Reservoir 

What with one thing or another the past week was shot to bits as far as getting out and about was concerned so I thought I'd best catch up with some walking before the joints seized up completely, I'd spent the weekend walking like Long John Silver. The weather was what's euphemistically described as: "changeable," so I thought I'd have a short walk that could be easily extended weather permitting. A juvenile black-necked grebe has been showing well at High Rid Reservoir so I headed thataway.

Fall Birch Road 

I got the train to Bolton and the 575 to Ox Hey Lane. Crossing the road's fun here but two drivers took pity on an old man. I made heavy weather of the gentle cobbled slope up Fall Birch Road, I really should have made more of an effort to walk around the block a few times every day last week. The birdwatching was very quiet: a few woodpigeons clattered about the rooftops and silhouettes of blackbirds, great tits and robins flitted about the hedgerow by the golf course.

Mallards

A crowd of mallards, most of them near-grown ducklings, clustered about the near corner of the reservoir. More of them littered the banks. One duck had two tiny youngsters in tow. A crowd of coots clustered in the corner further along and a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks drifting between the crowds included a couple of half-grown ducklings. 

Black-necked grebe
First sighting it was asleep.

I spotted the black-necked grebe before I noticed the half-grown tufties, which saved a deal of confusion (I managed to confuse myself something silly later on when I was scanning round from the Northern shore). I walked up a bit, finding a couple of dabchicks in amongst the tufted ducks, the juvenile being altogether greyer and browner and much more low contrast compared to the black-necked grebe. I looked out into the midwater where I'd last seen that, to confirm the comparison. Stap me vittles there were two of them. They drifted close to each other and dived, staying underwater an unconscionable time, which seems to be a feature of black-necked grebes, before bobbing back up again a hundred yards apart.

Black-necked grebe diving

Black-necked grebe 

Juvenile grey wagtail 

While I was watching the grebes and ducks a family of grey wagtails fossicked about on the waterside. Pied wagtails fussed about on the bank to the North and an adult male worked its way along the castellated top of the stone wall, bobbing up and dropping down as it went.

Pied wagtail 

Pied wagtail 

Canada geese and greylags 

A herd of Canada geese with a handful of greylags grazed the field to the North. A flock of rooks and jackdaws fussed about in the shorter grazing further up the hill. Half a dozen each of Canada geese and greylags cruised the reservoir, a couple of the greylags flying over from the field to join them. There weren't many gulls about, most of the lesser black-backs, herring gulls and black-headed gulls were flying over between engagements. A few black-headed gulls and a couple of lesser black-backs settled on the reservoir to bathe before moving on to wherever. 

High Rid Reservoir 

Looking North towards Chorley New Road

The wind had picked up and was pushing some filthy clouds our way. A common gull blew in as the rain started spotting. I decided not to push my luck carrying on down Old Hall Lane and walked back down Fall Birch Road, the joints making themselves known along the way.

I got the 575 into Wigan, the weather clearing along the way. I'd decided I needed an off-road dawdle on the flat to get some movement back into the joints. There were a few options available, I hadn't visited Byrom Hall Wood yet this year and the 610 was sitting at the bus station when we arrived so that's where I headed for.

Byrom Hall Wood 

I got off the bus at Golborne High School and walked down Farm Croft Drive then followed the path down past the school field. This stretch always looks and feels like unfinished business with drives through gateways to non-existent houses. I disturbed a charm of about fifty goldfinches feeding on the thistledown in the abandoned pasture. Much to my surprise a garden warbler was singing in the copse by the gate.

Lightshaw Meadows 

A quick scan over Lightshaw Meadows found woodpigeons commuting between fields and swallows hawking low over ripening grain. A willow warbler squeaked in the trees I was standing by.

Batman hoverfly looking fearsomely wasp-like 

Batman hoverfly, a bit friendlier from the front
Unfortunately it wasn't for letting me have a good dorsal view to show the Batman mask on its thorax.

It was a fairly quiet Summer walk through the woodland. The woodpigeons, jays and magpies made themselves obvious enough. A couple of wrens sang. Chiffchaffs and willow warblers squeaked, great tits and blue tits tutted, long-tailed tits tried and failed to be silent as they bounced through the oak scrub. The brambles were awash with butterflies, mostly gatekeepers and speckled woods. Meadow browns, large whites and peacocks fluttered about the clearings. A small bird flew into a hawthorn I was passing and stood stock still and silent under the cover of twigs and branches. But not so under cover that I couldn't see the bright brown wing panel that nailed it as a whitethroat.

Peacock

As I approached Byrom Hall swallows and woodpigeons flew about the fields and a family of greenfinches flitted about between hedgerows. I had half an hour to wait for the 588 to Leigh so I crossed the road and wandered down Byrom Lane to Pennington Flash.

Byrom Hall 

Pennington Flash 

For a change I took the footpath that heads past Mossley Hall. I very rarely approach the flash from this end. A raft of about fifty coots drifted in the bay at the Northwest corner of the flash with a herd of a dozen mute swans and a couple of great crested grebes. Further out a small raft of lesser black-backs and herring gulls drifted midwater and in the distance there were more mute swans on the Horrocks spit.

Walking to Slag Lane 

Blackbirds and song thrushes sang in the trees and a great spotted woodpecker greatly objected to my passing by. I followed the path down and round to Slag Lane where I only had a couple of minutes to wait for the 588. While I waited I was serenaded by woodpigeons, a blackbird, a blackcap and a song thrush.

Byrom Hall Wood

Sketch map: Byrom Hall Wood and surrounds

Byrom Wood is another of the small patches of woodland scattered round Greater Manchester, bridging a bit of space between Golborne and Pennington Flash. You can treat it as a walk on its own or as an add-on to another local walk.

Looking back at Byrom Hall 

For a first visit it's probably easiest to get the 588 from Leigh and get off at Byrom Lodge. If you miss it on the way down you can get it on the way back — the bus shuttles between Leigh and Lowton. You want to take the path by Byrom Hall, the farmhouse by the roadside. (If you do miss it it's not a long walk up Slag Lane from the next stop at the riding centre). The lane across the road is Byron Lane which takes you to the Southern shore of Pennington Flash.  As you walk past Byrom Hall you go past farm pastures then fairly quickly into the woods.

Walking in from Golborne 

Alternatively you can get the 610 from Wigan or Leigh and get off at Golborne High School or Rothwell Gardens. It's a less obvious route into the woods from this direction, you need to walk down the path between Rothwell Gardens and Rothwell Road, join Farm Croft Drive and then carry on walking straight on as the road curves away to your left. Ignore the gates, keep walking ahead. You'll pass some rough pasture which is the haunt of goldfinches, swallows and butterflies then join a bit of light woodland. 

Looking over towards Abram

If you carry on through you'll get out into some wet pasture and a vista of open farm fields and meadows over to Abram. If you follow the quacks in front of you you'll find a willow-lined pond round the corner of the field. You can't go any further so you'll have to retrace your steps. A path follows the field boundary, enters woodland and eventually joins the metalled path within the wood. It can be very muddy. 

The path can get muddy

Alternatively, before you get to open country you can follow the path that forks to the right, passes a pond and joins the metalled path.

Byrom Wood 

There's a good metalled circular path around the wood which makes for a pleasant walk. There's a mixture of deciduous woodland with all the Red Rose Forest regulars and open glades with small ponds and little brooks.

The birdwatching is what you would expect from light woodland in Northwest England. In Winter expect finch flocks and mixed tit flocks, warblers in Summer, chiffchaffs and blackcaps abundant in the trees, whitethroats in the glades. I haven't bumped into willow tits here but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a pair of two here. If you're coming in from Golborne make sure to check out whichever pond you're passing just in case there's more than just mallards or teal about, especially in late Summer when black-necked grebes are dispersing and can stop for a rest at any stray patch of water. And don't forget to look up every so often for buzzards and kestrels.

Leigh

By the car park at Pennington Flash
Canada geese, mute swans and mallards

Pennington Flash was due a visit and there are a few sites in the area that I've still not got round to this year so I thought I'd make a walk of it. I went over to Wigan, got the 610 and got off at Golborne High School for a walk through Byrom Hall Wood and then through the wood onto Slag Lane and thence onto Pennington Flash. And so I did, with a variation on the original plan that turned out in my favour.

I need to remember that the way into Byrom Hall Wood from Lowton Road is via Farm Croft Drive just before the school, not the road just after which goes to the water treatment works and a dead end. I retraced my steps, crossed the school playing field and joined the path into the woods. The trees were busy with singing chiffchaffs and blackcaps, the hedgerows with house sparrows and goldfinches and the field with woodpigeons and carrion crows including one very noisy young crow being fed by a parent. Swallows hawked low over the field by the farm buildings and reed buntings sang from deep in the thistles.

Byrom Hall Wood 

Looking over to Lightshaw Meadows and Abram

Through the gate and a little way beyond the path runs against the edge of the meadows that open out over to Abram. (I keep meaning to do that walk over Lightshaw Lane to Abram, it's the last gap in my walking round here.) There was the constant hum of bees and hoverflies in the brambles by the path, reassuring in this day and age. I walked round the edge of the field hoping to get sight of the pool round the corner here but the vegetation was too high. I walked back to the path, tiptoeing past ringlet butterflies and meadow browns and having swallows zip by at shin height.

Not entirely forsworn mud for the Summer

I followed the path through the next gate and into the wood. Blackcaps, blackbirds, song thrushes and chiffchaffs sang, goldfinches and greenfinches twittered in the trees, magpies rattled and woodpigeons barged about in the treetops. For all that the birds I kept seeing were jays, everything else kept under cover of leaves. The path got interesting in places and it was with a great sense of relief that I crossed the brook and joined the metalled circular path that leads out to Slag Lane.

Blackbird, Byrom Hall Wood

The path led to more open country where blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees and whitethroats from the hawthorn scrub. Greenfinches and goldfinches bounced about in the bushes, blackbirds and wrens rummaged about in the undergrowth and robins and great tits silently disappeared into the shadows as I passed. Swifts and swallows hawked overhead, the swallows at treetop height, the swifts a little higher. Higher yet was a small flock of house martins.

Byrom Hall Wood 

I joined the path to Byrom Hall, house sparrows joining the whitethroats in the fields and a buzzard floating over the treetops towards Slag Lane.

Byrom Hall 

I carried on to Slag Lane and didn't take the opportunity of the 588 to Leigh turning up as I got to the bus stop. I carried on, heading for the entrance to Pennington Flash just South of the canal. Song thrushes sang, whitethroats churred their exception to my passing, woodpigeons and black-headed gulls flew to and fro overhead.

Not my usual path into Pennington Flash 

Opposite the recycling centre I noticed a path running into Pennington Flash that I've overlooked before. On a whim I took it. It was a narrow path running between overgrown hedgerows fringed with reedbeds. Goldfinches and whitethroats paid me no heed as I brushed by, the chiffchaffs and dunnocks were a bit more shy. A couple of the goldfinches sang in the tops of bushes, a couple of blackbirds sang from overhead wires and the singing reed buntings out in the open nearly drowned out all else. I kept getting tantalising views of the flash, together with its mute swans and gulls, beyond the reedbeds. As I crossed Hey Brook a flash of electric blue shot down from the bridge and out of sight upstream, the first kingfisher I've seen for months.

Goldfinch, Pennington Flash

The path skirted Mossley Hall, a noisy family of kestrels calling in its tall trees, and joined Byrom Lane. I let on to the flock of guinea fowl sharing the field with a few cattle then walked down the lane. There's a sharp turn not far along and almost immediately a side road goes off towards Sorrowcroft Farm. I headed down here, this eventually becomes the path that runs along the Southern edge of the flash and then round to the car park. This is the way I came the first time I visited Pennington Flash and got hopelessly lost (and the reason why I include introductory site maps in this blog in case anyone readers fancy a look round).

Pennington Flash 

I joined the path along the flash, a small flock of sand martins passing overhead as I walked along. Mute swans, coots and great crested grebes went about their business near to the bank and paid no heed to fishermen, giddy spaniels or passing old men with binoculars round their necks. Four common terns noisily wheeled around the flash. Eventually two went their own way, one to spend the next half hour shouting from one of the buoys while a couple fished the near shore. A Cetti's warbler had a moment's song in a patch of brambly reeds at the waterside, whitethroats in the patches of scrub, blackcaps in the trees and chiffchaffs well nigh everywhere. It was all very pleasant even if the heavy, humid weather was draining.

Coots and great crested grebe, Pennington Flash

I had a sit down at the first available bench to have a long scan round the flash. A willow tit came over to check out what I was about, decided I wasn't a threat and jumped into a hawthorn bush to sing. I hear a willow tit sing perhaps once a year if I'm lucky and it's a surprise every time. Out on the flash there were large rafts of coots, groups of mute swans and mallards peppered the water, and a huge squadron of Canada geese cruised the far bank by the car park. Great crested grebes tended to be in pairs, black-headed gulls in ones and two (most of them were flying about) and ones and twos of tufted ducks lurked near reedbeds. A raft of a few dozen large gulls midwater near the sailing club was more lesser black-backs than herring gulls.

When I see drake common scoters on inland waters this time of year the inner monologue goes: Is that a scoter? No, it'll be a coot. It's down now, definitely a coot. Where's it got to? That's a funny head shape for a coot. Could do with it facing this way. It will have been a coot. Ah. Since when do coots have long tails? Today was no exception.

Black-headed gulls, mallards, coots, Canada geese and mute swans, Pennington Flash

Canada geese and mallards, Pennington Flash

Black-headed gull, Pennington Flash

I walked round and as I walked through the car park I scanned the crowd half in the hope that the Egyptian geese that used to be regular July arrivals might have turned up. You can but hope. The only dragonfly of the day was a Southern hawker that zipped by, stopped on the hover to eyeball me then shot off towards the visitor centre. The scoter was nearer this bank, the yellow on its bill making it unmistakable.

Lesser black-back and common scoter, Pennington Flash

Juvenile lapwing, Pennington Flash

The young lapwings on the Horrocks spit were full grown but still with scaly wings and short crests. Moorhens were making baby moorhens, mallards dozed and cormorants dried their wings at the end of the spit. After teasing me all along the far bank one of the terns took pity on me and posed for the camera on the compass post.

Mallard and moorhens, Pennington Flash

Common tern, Pennington Flash

The usual reed warbler was singing lustily on the pool opposite the Tom Edmondson Hide and was drowned out by an astonishingly loud reed bunting. The usual Cetti's warbler called a couple of times but didn't sing.

The reed warblers' pool 

A small group of gadwalls, including a duck with five young ducklings, lurked in one corner of the pool at the Tom Edmondson Hide while a dozen mallards drifted and dabbled in the middle. A pair of dabchicks in the far corner were heard far more than they were seen, similarly the herons in the treetops beyond.

At Ramsdales Hide 

The reeds in front of Ramsdales Hide had been slashed back this Spring to improve visibility, they've sprung back up with a vengeance and not much can be seen beyond. I could just about see a dozen mallards asleep at one end of an island and a couple of lapwings fussing about on the water's edge. Teal and more lapwings could be heard but not seen. There was a bit of movement in the short vegetation on another island just about visible through the reeds that turned out to be three common sandpipers. They don't often come in threes.

Pengy's Pool 

I had a brief look at Pengy's Pool on the way back, a few mallards dozing at the side while a common tern fished midwater. The Bunting Hide had a lot of great tits and a huddle of teenagers who, quite properly, didn't require an audience. I called it a day, walked across the golf course and headed for the bus stop by Pennington Hall Park and thence home. As the 25 from the Trafford Centre passed under the M60 I happened to glance up at one of the lampposts by the road and was surprised to see the local buzzard sitting on top of it.