Urmston and Irlam

Teal, Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

It was another fine May morning in March. I woke to the dawn chorus, missing the blackbird but catching all the rest of the current cast, and asked myself what I was going to do with it. It didn't take long to amass a long list of what I wasn't going to do with it so I decided I'd pick up and run with yesterday's plan and just to make sure I didn't do a repeat of yesterday I walked over to get the 15 bus which runs every quarter of an hour and stops near the Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve.

I could walk there from home but it's three miles of not unduly enervating suburban road walking and I did plenty enough of that during lockdown to last me a while yet. I got off a couple of stops early, though, just to make sure I was getting a little bit of exercise in for the day. It also meant I could walk down Daresbury Avenue from the start instead of walking in from the bus stop, getting to the crossroads and wondering which of the three Daresbury Avenues I need to be walking down.

Willow catkins

The reserve was awash with Blackthorn and cherry blossom but it was the catkins of the goat willows that made the biggest visual splash. 

Blackthorns 

Peacock butterflies, of which there were many, basked in the sun as they fed from the blossom at the tops of the cherry trees. Long-tailed tits favoured the catkins and the abundance of small insects feeding on them. The blue tits, great tits and chiffchaffs preferred the lower reaches of the willows though one chiffchaff did have a rummage about in some catkins and got chased off by a pair of long-tailed tits. The songscape was turned up to eleven with great tits, chiffchaffs, chaffinches, dunnocks and woodpigeons trying to be heard over the wrens and robins.

Goat willow 

Manchester Ship Canal 

The Ship Canal, viewed through the trees, was littered with waterfowl. As I crossed over Bents Lane Brook I noticed a couple of teal dabbling upstream of the bridge. A dozen more dabbled and dozed where the brook ran into the canal. Pairs of mallards and gadwalls hugged the canal banks, great crested grebes cruised midwater and cormorants fished. Most of the cormorants were working solo but there was some cooperative fishing going on, including three swimming upstream in a line abreast, taking turns to be the one in the middle capitalising from panicked fish coming in from either side.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve 

A couple of blackcaps sang in the bushes at the corner where the path splits. The creaking sound turned out to be my left knee rather than the whitethroat I'd hoped it was, the weather must be on the turn.

Barton Lock 

I walked round to the canalside at Barton Lock. For all that there were loads of gadwalls about there wasn't a single coot or tufted duck to be seen. Half a dozen black-headed gulls made enough noise for a crowd and a lesser black-back sat on a lamppost. I already knew where the heron's preferred fishing point was and felt a bit smug at having been proved right again. It'll be elsewhere next time I visit.

Heron on Barton Lock

I walked round and followed the dead straight path along the reserve boundary. Yet more peacock butterflies, some of them barging comma butterflies off favoured basking spots. A treecreeper added to the songscape. I'm never sure if I really am hearing a treecreeper and it always comes as a relief when I see the bird fidget up a tree trunk. A buzzard called loudly as it flew overhead, I wondered if it's the same pale-headed bird I've seen a few times on Cadishead Moss.

Gadwalls and moorhens drifted about a pond that will soon be all but invisible behind reeds and flag irises. It's still many weeks too early to start expecting to see dragonflies, which didn't stop me looking.

The pond

I got talking to a couple walking their dog and we both joked that if we were here the kingfisher that's often seen on the canal won't be. I'd taken three steps when it shot down the canal past me. I shouted over to thank them for being lucky mascots and hoped they'd see it on their way back. I hope they did.

The afternoon was yet young so I decided to go and have a look at Irlam Locks. I could have got the 15 to the end of its route on Lytham Road and walked down from there, it's five stops so I guess that would be defensible. But it's only five stops, slightly over an extra mile, so I walked it. Lytham Road Park is a few acres of green space between the road and the canal, every time I go past I feel sure there should be a path down to Irlam Locks despite my knowing full well there isn't one. I stopped and asked myself if I was sure and had to look at two maps before I was convinced. The rookeries on Woodsend Crescent Road were bustling with activity but no sign of youngsters yet.

Rookery

The house sparrows in the hedgerows down Irlam Road were noisy and fussy, which set me wondering if some didn't already have mouths to feed. Robins, blackbirds and dunnocks were doing most of the singing in the background.  

Irlam Locks 

The clamour of the black-headed gulls on the locks and the water treatment works almost drowned out the songbirds' efforts. I scanned through the crowds in the hopes I might get my first Mediterranean gull of the year but they were all right and proper black-headed gulls, even the second calendar year birds that were keeping their white heads awhile.

Black-headed gulls

A couple of cormorants loafed on the locks. A string of fourteen of them fished downstream under the railway bridge. The great crested grebes favour fishing here but they'd obviously been outnumbered by larger birds and so were loafing with the gulls in the lock.

River Irwell Old Course 

I sort of drifted over the locks and up Cadishead Way and over to the Irwell Old Course. Great tits, chiffchaffs and woodpigeons sang in the trees. They were joined by blackbirds, robins, wrens, dunnocks and a song thrush as I dropped down the steps and walked along the bankside. Moorhens, coots and mallards pottered about on the water and a terrapin basked on a log. Some of the mallards succumbed to the fires in the blood which scandalised a couple who shouted, clapped their hands and threw sticks at them. Looking at them and their only child I got the impression that somebody had done the same to them.

Moorhen

Collared doves joined the songscape and goldfinches twittered in the treetops. I decided I didn't have the legs for a wander up Irlam Moss so I walked over and got the 100 to the Trafford Centre and thence home. It had been a nice, chilled sort of walk and I was glad I hadn't badgered myself into anything more frenetic.

Davyhulme and Moss Side

Gadwalls, Barton Lock

Another fine day, I decided I didn't want to spend too much of it travelling about so ended up spending too much of it waiting for buses. I played bus stop bingo and eventually — very eventually — it was the 256 that turned up first and I decided I'd have a look round Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve. For some reason I can't get enthusiastic about this site despite its being a decent walk and always productive, somehow it just doesn't for me. Which is a good reason for a visit, it's a decent walk and always productive and there's no good reason not to.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve 

The sparrows and goldfinches were singing in the hedgerows as I walked in. As I walked along the path robins and chiffchaffs and a blackcap sang in the trees while titmice, wrens and blackbirds quietly went about their business. There were a lot of butterflies, small whites and brimstones fluttered about the undergrowth and the sunny stretches of path were littered with sunbathing commas and peacocks.

People think I'm joking about the "There was a warbler there a moment ago" portfolio.
Chiffchaff.

Willow warblers sang, appropriately enough, from the willows by the ponds. A couple of chaffinches limbered up for a song but never got going with it. The greenfinches and goldfinches in the trees in the bit of parkland called incessantly but didn't sing.

Canada geese 

I'd been seeing pairs of gadwalls and mallards on the canal as I walked down and cormorants had flown overhead. There were more of them at Barton Lock together with a noisy pair of Canada geese and a pair of teal lurking by the near bank. A drake goosander flew low overhead, I couldn't find any on the canal. There's nearly always a heron using the lock as a lookout point, it took me a while to find it today.

Barton Lock — spot the heron

Teal

The pond was quiet today 

I headed back and finished the circuit of the reserve, adding a singing coal tit and a few small tortoiseshells to the tally. It had been a pleasant walk and there was plenty about. I need to do it more often.

I walked back and got the 15, thinking I'd get off at The Urmston and walk home. On a whim I stayed on into Moss Side and walked down the road to Alexandra Park.

Alexandra Park 

It was approaching teatime and the park was very busy with people. The parakeets were much in evidence today, their calls drowning out the robins and great tits. Blackbirds, wrens and dunnocks rummaged about in the undergrowth, blue tits and goldfinches skittered about the treetops.

Tufted duck

As usual the tufted ducks preferred the North end of the pond and as usual I made sure there wasn't a ring-necked duck amongst them. The coots and Canada geese were noisy, the pairs of mallards and mute swans quietly cruised around, a heron lurked on the island.

Mallard

Heron

The crowd of pigeons over by the pavillion seemed even bigger than usual, no doubt drawn by people coming to feed the ducks. An absence of black-headed gulls was noticeable.

Red-eared terrapins

I know people like to see them but I was still a bit dismayed to see the terrapins sunning themselves on the island.

I walked down to Hough End for the bus home. I got there with five minutes to spare and spent the time listening to the chiffchaffs and robins singing in the trees by the field.

Davyhulme

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve 

It was a bright, windy day after a wild and woolly night, with another storm front on the way, so I thought I'd take my aches and pains for a walk while I could. I headed over to the Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve to see if the first-Winter scaup that was on the Ship Canal over the weekend was still about. Rather than mess about I got the 256 to Woodsend Circle and walked down to Eddisbury Avenue and down into the reserve.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve 

The small birds were keeping under cover. House sparrows, goldfinches and blue tits muttered in the hedgerows and blackbirds rummaged round the sides of the paths. Even the goldcrests were feeding on the ground.

First sight of the canal through the trees found a couple of teal and the first of the dozens of gadwall I'd be bumping into today. A little further on three dabchicks bobbed about on with more gadwall and a bit further on five great crested grebes — four first-Winters and an adult — cruised the waves.

I bumped into a couple of birdwatchers who confirmed the scaup was still about. It had been reported on the stretch of canal by the picnic tables, today it had moved on into the little dock by Barton Lock where it had joined a flock of tufted ducks. The bad news being that that dock's thickly fringed with trees so getting a view can be tricky. But not impossible.

I got there and found dozens of gadwalls and coots, handfuls of teal, a heron, a raft of black-headed gulls with a couple of herring gulls, a common gull and a lesser black-back, no tufties. I walked down to Barton Dock where there was a better view of the gulls and a couple of cormorants.

Barton Dock 

I strolled back and tried the dock again, having better luck this time as the raft of a couple of dozen tufties had drifted out into the middle of the dock. I looked for the scaup, finding another couple of dabchicks in the crowd and gadwalls floated in and out. It took a good ten minutes to find the scaup. I could give a lot of excuses like there were trees in the way and the scaup tended to dive long and deep but the plain fact was that it was at the front of the crowd and I just wasn't seeing it. It came as a relief when I finally spotted it.

I walked back down the path by the ponds. Goldfinches and house sparrows muttered in the depths of the dogwoods by the big pool, chaffinches and bullfinches flitted about the willows. A mixed tit flock — mostly great tits and blue tits with a couple of long-tailed tits — bounced through the bushes and into the willows. I was very conscious that treecreeper still isn't on the year list but every bird I spotted limbering quietly up and down the tree trunks turned out to be a great tit.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve 

Coming out of this reserve is always disconcerting because the way out leads to a mini-roundabout with five turn-offs all of which are labelled Eddisbury Avenue. Ignore the signs and walk straight ahead.

I was traveling light as the camera kit is hors de combat. I've been thinking over the weekend: I'm not Peter Pan and perhaps some of the everyday aches and pains won't be being helped by my lugging a lot of heavy kit about for three or four hours at a time. I thought that perhaps it's time to get a bridge camera rather than carrying on with a DSLR and a big lens. Feeling the difference in weight on today's walk decided me: the aches from Thursday's spill made themselves felt, I'd have been knackered with the usual load. So that's me for a new camera.

Davyhulme

Goldcrest

I spent most of the morning catching up with the sleep I've not been getting this week. I evidently didn't miss much given the state of the rooftops and it carried on pouring down through lunchtime. The afternoon grew progressively clearer until it got to the point at teatime where I was asking myself if I planned on wasting such a nice afternoon. (The correct answer is: "Yes, if I want to," I have to make a conscious effort not to turn this pastime into a job.)

I've not taken a turn around Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve yet this year so I got the 15 to the stop before Woodsend Circle and wandered down Eddisbury Avenue to the reserve. There was a lot of twittering of sparrows and goldfinches in the hedgerows by the car park, explained when I spooked a male sparrowhawk that had been rummaging around in there. He flew off over the Ship Canal and the small birds hooted derision at both of us.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

I can't seem to fall in love with this place. Perhaps it's too manicured and too obviously a corporate nature reserve (we can walk it by permission of United Utilities). Perhaps it's because it's fiddly to get to and doesn't lead on to anywhere so it's not a useful add-on to another walk. More likely it's because it's one of those walks that's just long enough to make you feel tired but not long enough to get your second wind and get into a walking rhythm. Which is a shame because for its size it's a very productive birdwatching walk.

Sparrowhawk

I spent a while christening a new camera card with a few "A goldcrest was here a moment ago" pictures. They are least were a bit more obliging than the great tits and blue tits that were bouncing round the same stand of trees under the cover of breaking buds. Robins, chiffchaffs and blackbirds kept up a steady background of song while woodpigeons and magpies bashed about in the treetops (yes, that is a euphemism).

A pair of kestrels rose in a synchronised display flight and slowly drifted over the canal. I thought they were back a few minutes later but it was a male sparrowhawk, probably the one I spooked earlier, and he slowly circled overhead before drifting back down to treetop height and heading off for the back gardens by the car park.

I carried on down the path with greenfinches, wrens and a coal tit joining in the songscape. As I passed a dense stand of dogwood a willow tit churred at me then went about it's business. I had a look at the canal through a gap in the trees, there was only the one mute swan on the water today.

Heron

I took the long loop down to the end of the reserve at Barton Locks. There's a little dock on this side of the canal just here and it's impossible to get an unimpeded view of it. Which is frustrating as I could see a pair of mallards, a cormorant and a black-headed gull sitting by one of the disused winches and it sounded like there was more to be seen behind the trees and concrete. A few herring gulls and lesser black-backs flew low over the locks, as did a pair of great black-backs which made a beeline for the little dock. A heron lurked on the sluice gates looking out for anything that had the misfortune to be caught in the overflow and cast into the shallow water at the base of the gates. I couldn't see what it was catching but it had two successful tries while I was watching it.

Blackthorn

I checked the ponds for frogspawn and found none, I've had no luck yet this year. I thought I'd found my first butterfly of the year but it turned out to be a day-flying moth of some kind. Try as I may most of my moth identification consists of my eliminating the ones I know it can't be, leaving me with a few score possibilities to choose from. This time last year I'd seen six species of butterflies, this year none. The strange stop-start warm and cold spells this month after a very warm February probably has a lot to do with it and the heavy rains won't have helped. It'll be a relief to finally see any.

Something else that was conspicuously missing were moorhens. It turned out they were playing peep-oh on the big pond near the entrance. The only long-tailed tits of the visit were in the shrubs by the pond and a reed bunting sang appropriately from the reeds. As I headed for the car park and the bus home a blackcap started singing from the scrub by an electricity pylon, which was a nice way to end the trip.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

I'm going to have to put more of an effort into this site, I'm sure it'll be worth it on the end.

Flixton

Sketch map of Flixton
(Including Davyhulme Millennium NR)

The farmland of Flixton is the westernmost part of the Mersery Valley complex that stretches across Greater Manchester from Stockport. The Mersey joins the Manchester Ship Canal here, the canal forming the border between Flixton and Irlam (and Trafford and Salford). Carrington is on the other side (the old Cheshire side) of the Mersey, if you walk down Flixton Road then continue down Isherwood Road you get to Carrington Moss. As well as the farmland there's a reedbed on the small nature reserve on Jack Lane, a small angler's pond (Dutton's Pond) and, South of the railway line, an area of scrub and willow woodland covering the now-disused canal lagoons.

The bird life is pretty much what you'd expect from any open land and thin woodlands on the edge of an urban area. There's at least one pair of willow tits in the area but there's no guarantee that you'll bump into them on any given visit. (Having said that, keep an ear out for them as you walk along either side of the railway embankment.) You'll usually see kestrels and buzzards; you might see a peregrine falcon  around the canal, they seem to be attracted by the pigeons on Irlam Locks and around Carrington Power Station. 

For a first visit it's probably best to start from Flixton Station, cross the road and walk down Ambleside Road to Dutton's Pool. The buses stopping on Flixton Road by Ambleside Road are the 247 between Altrincham and the Trafford Centre and the 255 from Piccadilly Gardens to Partington. Alternatively you can get off at the stops on Carrington Road and walk down Merseyview (or walk down from the station) — the path starts at the end of Merseyview where the road suddenly turns left into the farm, you turn right here into the trees.

At the bottom of Ambleside Road you reach the bit of thin woodland surrounding Dutton's Pond. All the usual suburban woodland species are around. Turn left for the path alongside Dutton's Pond. The pond usually has a few moorhen and mallards. Down at the bottom of the path the turn to the right takes you along the fields to Jack Lane; the path to the right takes you to the end of Merwell Road. Here you have the choice of walking alongside the railway to Jack Lane and on to the canal or going under the railway and having a wander by the lagoons.

If you go under the railway and carry straight on you'll get to the end of Merseyview. Turn right and follow the paths you'll do a loop back to where you started. (Turn left here and walk down and you're onto Carrington Road.) There's a bit of thin woodland which leads on to open scrub. Here and there along this stretch you can see the river before it lurches off into the distance and as the land rises you overlook the horse paddocks on the farm below. The path turns as you get to the old lagoons, you get good treetop views from here, there's no safe way down to the ground below. Approaching the railway you get back into the thin woodland.

If you go down the lane along the railway embankment you'll pass a couple of fields and then meet Jack Lane Local Nature Reserve. This is made up of two pools, each about the size of Dutton's Pond, one entirely wooded over and one with an extensive reedbed. There's a muddy path between the two that gets you onto Jack Lane. Carry on down alongside the railway embankment and you get to the end of Jack Lane. If you carry on you'll eventually get to the canal; there used to be a path from this point alongside the canal to Irlam Locks but this fell away some time ago and the remains of the path are fenced off at the locks so you can't get through. There's a considerable drop down to the canal from here so I'd suggest you confine yourself to having a look to see what's about then retrace your steps to Jack Lane. 

All the paths towards Jack Lane will lead you into the housing estate at the end of Irlam Road. When you reach Irlam Road turn left and walk down to Irlam Locks. When you get past the cattery the road's no more than a country lane alongside the canal. In Summer the telephone lines are busy with swallows and martins, in Winter they're busy with starlings. There are usually mallards and moorhens on the canal and the locks, look out for dabchicks and kingfishers on the opposite bank. The path ends at the locks by the local water treatment works. Pied wagtails and black-headed gulls feed on the filtration tanks, every so often they'll be joined by oystercatchers and it's always worth looking about to see if anything's stopping by on passage.

Where to now? 

• You could retrace your steps back to Flixton Station. 
• You could walk over the locks into Irlam, cross Cadishead Way and walk down to Fairhills Road. This takes you to Liverpool Road, passing a stretch of the old course of the River Irwell that forms an elongated pond roughly parallel to the canal. The 67 bus between Cadishead and Manchester and the 100 between Hollins Green anf the Trafford Centre then Manchester run along Liverpool Road. If you turn left and walk down half a mile you get to Irlam Station. If you're feeling energetic you could cross  the road and walk up Roscoe Road through Irlam Moss and thence to Little Woolden Moss and Chat Moss.
• You could walk back down Irlam Road, straight over the roundabout and on to Town Gate for the 15 or 256 bus, both of which go through Stretford to Manchester. Or walk on past the schools to the corner of Woodsend Road for the 247 bus.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

I've included this site here for convenience's sake. This is a small reserve made up of a few scrubby fields a couple of pools and some young woodland by the canal. It's nice for a short wander round. The entrance is by the Hulme's Ferry quay. To get there, turn off Woodsend Road onto Eddisbury Avenue  (just by the Fox pub and kitchen) and walk down to where it meets Daresbury Avenue then straight over (don't turn right) down Daresbury Avenue to the Ship Canal.

The 15 and the 245 between Altincham and the Trafford Centre stop on Woodsend Road, or you could get the 247 or 256 to the roundabout where Moorside Road meets Woodsend Road and walk up.

Stretford and Urmston

Goldcrest

After a lazy morning where I decided to bin the planned outing because I couldn't be doing with a long train ride I bobbed over to Longford Park.

Grey squirrel

Squirrels and woodpigeons were busy in the leaves under the trees in the park, pretty much oblivious to passers-by. A couple of mixed tit flocks worked their ways high up in the trees, a third was doing the rounds of the conifers in the rock garden.

Longford Park

One conifer had four goldcrests flitting about in the gloom of its lower branches. One male broke off from feeding every so often to make sure the others knew it was boss.

An uncooperative goldcrest

I moved on to Rye Bank Fields which was pretty quiet save for a flock of house sparrows in the hedge by the sports stadium and yet another mixed tit flock at the North end.

Rather than retracing my steps I was going to get the 15 bus from The Quadrant back to Stretford but then changed my mind and stayed on the bus down to Woodsend to visit Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve. I've not been before so this was by way of a reconnaissance.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

After a false start finding my way in I spent an hour doing a circuit of the reserve. It's one of those "left behind" corners of land bounded by the Manchester Ship Canal, Davyhulme water treatment works and a housing estate. Most of it is wooded parkland with a few small ponds dotted about. The sun was getting low so I didn't follow the path down to the canal this time.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

It was late in the afternoon so there wasn't a lot of activity: the usual woodland subjects, including a great spotted woodpecker, and a few mallard on the large wooded pond near the entrance. I'll come back for another look soon, it's pretty easy to get to by bus.