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.

Hindley

Blackcap, Low Hall

After yesterday's debacle I needed some exercise and a bit of a morale boost so I decided a woodland walk was in order. I headed for Amberswood, hoping to get willow tits and/or jays onto the monthly tally and perhaps even find some Norfolk hawkers on the wing. The weather forecast was set to muggy with some chance of rain so I carried my light raincoat over my arm.

The 25 was running quarter of an hour late so I decided to walk through the park and get the 250 to the Trafford Centre. The blackbirds, wrens and woodpigeons were in full song. A couple of the robins sang, as did a couple of blackcaps and a chiffchaff. There was neither sight nor sound of any whitethroats anywhere, the brambles that hosted three territories in the past had been strimmed down to the ground to tidy the "waste" ground up last year and they've been replaced by huge stands of goldenrod and willowherbs. On the plus side, there are now two song thrush territories.

Barton Clough

I got over to the Trafford Centre and got the 132 to Wigan, getting off at the entrance to Amberswood on. Manchester Road It's a long haul from the Trafford Centre to Hindley and we passed through two heavy showers along the way. The weather was cool and grey and heavy when I got off the bus but the rain seemed to have taken most of the pollen out of the air.

Amberswood 

I waited for two ponies and their lady riders to pass by before joining the trail into Amberswood. All the usual woodland choristers were in song except the great tits which quietly got on with their business. Blue tits were heard, just, but not seen as they shepherded youngsters through the hedgerows. Swifts and swallows passed overhead but didn't seem minded to stay. I thought it too cool to expect to see any butterflies other than the peacock caterpillars on the nettles and was proved wrong by the ringlets and meadow browns fluttering about the grass verges round the lake. 

Peacock caterpillar 

Amberswood Lake 

My arrival at the lake was heralded by Cetti's warblers, I think it's three birds here, two at the North end and one at the South, but I wouldn't be shocked to find it was four. Nearly all the small birds sneaking about in the reeds turned out to be reed buntings. The exception came as I was scanning about for dragonflies and a reed warbler hopped onto a willow twig by my side. We looked at each other for a while, each pretending we hadn't seen the other, then the warbler decided to have a rummage about in the litter at the base of the reeds where somebody had been pulling out Himalayan balsams. A little further along something seemed to be greatly agitating one of the moorhens in the reeds but I could see neither the bird nor the cause for its alarm.

Out on the water there seemed to be two great crested grebes nests on the go at either end by the reeds and one male cruising about midwater. Mallards, mute swans and tufted ducks cruised about and a couple of black-headed gulls squabbled for no particular reason. A heron jumped up into a sapling the better to watch me on my way as I turned the corner at the Southern end.

Heron

Low Hall 

I crossed Liverpool Road for a wander round Low Hall. The song thrushes did their best to sing over the rest of the chorus but they weren't having it. Mute swans and mallards dozed on the pond and a pair of gadwalls and their near full-sized ducklings dabbled in the far corner. I had a bit of a wander round, watching a mixed flock of great tits and blue tits moving anticlockwise round the dipping pool while a family of long-tailed tits moved clockwise. I surprised a male blackcap which had been rooting about in the nettles at the base of a tree, it flew up to the lowermost branches by my head. I think it was only scared of my treading on it.

Blackcap

I checked the time and the buses and decided my best bet was to walk back through Amberswood and get the 132 back from Manchester Road, I'd get to the stop with about five minutes to spare. And so I did, stopping along the way only to watch a couple of common terns coming in to the lake, a whitethroat taking an immense beakful of caterpillars to its nest, and to allow the ladies and their ponies by as we all headed for the Manchester Road entrance.

I didn't get to see willow tits or jays or Norfolk hawkers at Amberswood today but them's the vagaries. As the bus sat at traffic lights in Atherton town centre a jay slowly flew across the road.

Wigan bumper bundle

Reed bunting, Amberswood 

I've been missing out on the passage of common scoters through the region so I thought I'd go over to Scotman's Flash in Wigan where at least one's been settled for a couple of days. There's also a scaup that's been lingering, I don't "need" either for the year list but it would be good to see them and it was a nice day for a walk by the flashes. I got the 132 to Wigan but as we were getting into Hindley I decided it was too nice a day to spend caught up in Wigan town centre traffic so I got off at Gregory Street and walked to the flashes via Amberswood and Ince Cemetery. I can wait for a rainy day to go and see if the golden colossus statue is back in his rightful place.

Amberswood, walking in from Manchester Road 

I'd barely set foot onto the path into Amberswood when I was hit by a cacophony of birdsong. A blackcap competed with a robin and a chiffchaff and they were joined by a dunnock, a wren and a coal tit. I hadn't gone far when a blackbird joined in and a song thrush could be heard further in the wood. It didn't take long for great tits and blue tits to make themselves known, though the blue tits were generally too busy rummaging about in the gorse bushes to get much singing done.

Gorse 

Amberswood 

Things were a little quieter as I left the hedgerows and walked through the woods to the lake. A distant great spotted woodpecker drummed in the trees. A nuthatch drowned out the songs of robins, coal tits and chiffchaffs for a brief moment. And for once the wrens quietly went about their business, at least until they decided that human passers-by needed singing off the territory.

Reed bunting

Reed buntings had the run of the feeders at the corner of the lake, a couple of chaffinches briefly passing by. The titmice and goldfinches were staying in the trees. I couldn't work out if it was one or two Cetti's warblers in the reeds, there was definitely one wandering up and down and the possible second further along might have been the same bird following me down the path.

Mallards and mute swans 

Amberswood Lake 

Mallards, coots, mallards and a great crested grebe were taking it easy on the lake. Unlike the black-headed gulls which spent more time quarrelling than bathing or loafing. Some of the first-Winter birds were starting to get their brown hoods, in contrast to the immature brown wing feathers.

One of the dragonfly ponds 

Amberswood 

I took the path towards Ince and Spring View. The sun brought out the butterflies as well as the singing birds: peacock butterflies fluttered about the verges or basked on top of bramble bushes, there were far fewer brimstones and they kept to the open rides.

Jays

Two pairs of jays were disputing the ownership of a hawthorn bush. There was no shortage of hawthorn bushes but they both wanted this one. The usual raucous calls were subdued and sounded all the more menacing for it. Crests were raised and fluffed up in anger and the blue patches on their wings were made vividly prominent. One pair slunk quietly into the depths of the bush while the other continued to voice and signal their claims to it.

Jays

The path passed through open areas with reedy dragonfly ponds and patches of light wet woodland. I kept an eye and ear out for willow tits but it wasn't my day for it. There were more singing coal tits than great tits, and far fewer singing blue tits. Long-tailed tits skittered about hawthorn bushes in pairs. Every so often there'd be greenfinches or goldfinches in the tree tops, a couple of times it was a couple of siskins. Way overhead a pair of buzzards called as they circled each other on the thermals. Approaching Spring View the little fishing lodges had coots and mallards pottering about, the largest also had a mute swan that seemed to be on its own.

Ince Cemetery 

I'd remembered the paths right and emerged onto Wigan Road opposite the cemetery. I crossed and walked down Cemetery Road, over the West Coast Main Line and through the little industrial estate where the road became the path through to the Wigan Flashes. Chiffchaffs, blackcaps and robins sang in the trees as I walked by.

By Turner's Flash 

Turner's Flash is heard rather than seen along this path. I was hearing a lot of black-headed gulls, coots and Canada geese behind the trees. I heard them all the more when a buzzard left a pathside tree and floated over that way. Jays and magpies called in the trees and woodpigeons clattered about. Blackbirds, robins and song thrushes rummaged about in the undergrowth and the singing great tits took over from the coal tits.

I bumped into another birdwatcher when I reached the canal. He'd seen a couple of whooper swans on Scotman's Flash as well as three common scoters swimming together on the far side. As we were talking both of ours first orange tip butterfly flew by.

Scotman's Flash 

Reed buntings and a Cetti's warbler sang fitfully in the reedbed by Scotman's Flash. A few coots and great crested grebes pottered about this corner of the flash, mallards lurked under the near bank. Over the far side Canada geese and tufted ducks drifted about by the bank and at least one Canada goose was nesting under the trees. 

The whooper swans were distant

The flash opened up as I walked along and now I could see the two whooper swans hiding in plain sight amongst a loose herd of mute swans and a raft of herring gulls and lesser black-backs. Tufted ducks and coots drifted about, the tufties in small rafts and the coots in ones and twos. The three distant "coots" swimming in tight formation became three common scoters as I walked further up the path. I'd kept an eye on them as being something unusual as three coots swimming that close together would have pecked each other to death. There were more cormorants actively fishing than loafing.

Scotman's Flash 

A scaup has been reported here every day recently. The chap I'd been speaking to earlier was walking back and we let on. We compared notes and I mentioned I hadn't had any luck finding the scaup. He'd seen it and was determined that I should see it too. Luckily it hadn't gone far from where he'd first seen it and he picked it up in his telescope. It was bathing just by a group of tufties by the far bank, I'd been seeing it but unable to identify it as anything different. I bade him thanks and he went on his way.

Pearson's Flash 

I toddled into Poolstock, keeping an eye on the flashes either side of the canal. I was getting better, though distant, views of the scoters on Scotman's Flash. A pair of gadwalls were with the mute swans on Pearson's Flash. There were just mallards on Westwood Flash.  Meanwhile, on the canal, a mute swan was busy showing its irritation with pairs of Canada geese.

Poolstock 

I'd had a long, meandering walk and was flagging a bit. I decided I'd get the 639 to the bus station rather than walking down the canal into Wallgate, there was one due in five minutes. This turned out to be a tactical error: the five minutes became twelve and stayed due in twelve minutes for the next twenty, in the end it was thirty-seven minutes late. The sunk cost fallacy is my failing at bus stops, I've too often given up and had my bus sail past fifty yards down the road. I got the train back from Wigan and made the connection with the bus home. I wasn't going to let one bus spoil a very nice day's outing.

Amberswood

Treecreeper

It had been a bright,sunny morning. I'd debated the pros and cons of where to go today and decided that Amberswood would be the least busy on a sunny Saturday. The clouds rolled in as I put my coat on and walked to the bus stop. It became overcast as I hung about the Trafford Centre waiting for the 132 bus but it was still dry and mild and the wind that had been a feature of the week had died down. I stepped off the bus on Manchester Road and it started pouring down.

Walking in from Manchester Road 

The rain didn't put off the singing robins, woodpigeons and great tits. The hedgerows were heaving with small birds, not least because every do often someone had put bird food on flat surfaces. Great tits, blue tits, house sparrows and reed buntings flitted through the bushes, blackbirds and chaffinches mopped up on the ground. 

Amberswood 

Further along a loose sort of mixed tit flock bouncing through the woodland included great tits, blue tits, goldcrests and blackbirds. The harder the rain fell the louder the song thrushes sang. The peculiar squeaks in the treetops turned out to be a pair of great spotted woodpeckers succumbing to the fires in the blood.

Coal tit

I spent longer than was wise standing at the corner of the lake watching the titmice, chaffinches and reed buntings on the feeders. I was hoping one or more of the willow tits might make themselves available for adding to the year list, I've had no luck so far. And had none today. The long-tailed tits I hadn't been seeing on the path in were on the fat feeders. There were as many coal tits as blue tits and twice as many reed buntings as chaffinches. Given the weather and the time of year it wasn't surprising the feeding was so frenetic.

Blue tit (front) and great tit

Amberswood Lake 

As I squelched round the lake I consoled myself with the thought I'd soon be being baffled by dragonflies. After the past week I made sure to check that all the tufted ducks were tufted ducks. I found a common gull amongst the black-headed gulls. The mallards and moorhens, and most of the coots, were sheltering in the reeds. The usual pair of mute swans had given up and gone to sleep.

Tufted ducks

Heron

A heron stalking the little pond by the path didn't move as I walked by but made sure I knew it was seeing me off the premises. It had to wait longer than either of us had anticipated as I spotted the pair of great crested grebes squaring up to dance. They were well into the initial head-waggling with their tufts and ruffs fully expanded for maximum effect when, almost inevitably, the third grebe on this lake barged in, blaring like a foghorn, and broke up the proceedings.

Great crested grebes

I didn't fancy going over to Low Hall then traipsing up Liverpool Road to get the bus back from Hindley. I decided instead to head for Spring View for the buses to Wigan or Leigh, only a very slightly longer walk and most of it under cover of trees. I hadn't gone far when I bumped into a pair of treecreepers working the moss-covered saplings by the path. They were accompanying a mixed finch flock which at first I thought was just goldfinches and chaffinches then I noticed the larches and alders were busy with siskins and redpolls. The siskins followed me along the path, often coming within an arm's length. Eventually I gave in and tried to get some photos. Which turned out like most of my photos of siskins, silhouettes against a blank grey sky. The light was so awful, and the siskins so active, that any time I caught one against a dark background the inevitably slow shutter speed required rendered the bird a blur. Still, you've got to try.

Siskin

Heading for Spring View 

Further along, song thrushes and blackbirds sang and woodpigeons, magpies and jays barged about in the trees. A dunnock sang from a hawthorn bush in a small clearing. Robins sang from the otherwise deserted fishing lodge. I got the 609 bus to Leigh and connected with the 126 back to the Trafford Centre. About a hundred yards from home it stopped raining.