Wigan flashes

Great crested grebe and chick, Horrocks Flash

The weather was still not altogether to be trusted so I thought I'd be as well to have one of those walks where I can bail out and get the bus home if I have to. I got the train to Wigan, walked down Chapel Lane (which sounds picturesque but is the A49 dual carriageway), dropped down onto the towpath for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and headed towards Leigh. Other directions are available but this one gets you to the Wigan flashes.

Marsh orchid, Poolstock 

The first stretch runs alongside Poolstock Lane. The songscape was mostly blackbirds, robins and wrens with a supporting cast of chiffchaffs, blackcaps and song thrushes in the trees on the other side. Goldfinches and greenfinches twittered about, magpies and woodpigeons lurked on rooftops and swifts hawked over the canal. A young blackbird made a nonsense of hiding in deep cover in an elder bush by making such a racket when its mother turned up with a beakful of assorted worms. I've not seen any orchids yet this year so it was nice to see a good showing of marsh orchids (southern marsh orchids, I think) peppered about the towpath verge. A few drake mallards floated about on the canal, a duck with two well-grown ducklings sat on the bank, dropping down into the water as I passed.

Mallard and ducklings, Poolstock 

Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Poolstock 

The canal took a sharp turn to the left towards the flashes, a collection of lakes formed by the subsidence of abandoned coal mines. The canal wiggles it's way through them towards Platt Bridge.  Some, like Westwood Flash on the other side of the canal here, are hidden from the canal by trees while others are right next to the canal towpaths. The first Cetti's warbler of the day was singing from typically scrubby reeds by the canal near Scotmans Bridge where the main road passes over.

Common tern, Scotman's Flash 

Scotman's Flash was on the other side of the bridge on my side of the canal. This is the biggest of these flashes. Over of the far side a herd of mute swans cruised the reedbed margins. A raft of a couple of dozen large gulls — equal numbers of herring gulls and lesser black-backs — drifted midwater while black-headed gulls and common terns called noisily as they flew about. Dozens of sand martins and swifts hawked low over the water.

Common blue damselfly, Scotman's Flash 

Closer to hand, on the bankside, half a dozen common blue damselflies clung onto the windblown grass hoping to see the sun sometime.

Swift, Scotman's Flash 

I spent a few minutes getting a sizeable portfolio of "there was a swift there a moment ago" photos.

Scotman's Flash 

Out on the flash a couple of pairs of great crested grebes warily cruised by each other, keeping a good thirty yards of clear water and flashing ear tufts whenever they drifted too close. There were a few mallards about but only the one coot and, surprisingly, not a single tufted duck.

Greylags and goslings, Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

Canada geese and goslings, Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

I passed a mixed group of greylags and Canada geese on the towpath, the greylag goslings looking a good way ahead of the Canada goslings. 

Looking over through the trees on the other side of the canal it looked like all the coots were on Pearson's Flash with a few mute swans. A very dark buzzard passed over the flash and it took me a while to be sure I wasn't looking at a marsh harrier, it was only when it turned and headed over the canal towards Poolstock I could see enough of its shape to be satisfied of the identification.

Scotman's Flash 

The reedy end of Scotman's Flash was noisy with warblers: blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers in the trees and whitethroats and Cetti's warblers singing in the scrub with a few reed buntings.

Buzzard, Turner's Flash 

I crossed Moss Bridge and walked the towpath on the Turner's Flash side. There's a good bit of woodland between the towpath and the flash with garden warblers joining in the songscape. The first reed warbler of the day was drowned out by Cetti's warblers at a small pool near the bridge. A male kestrel hovered overhead before moving on towards Pearson's Flash and another, paler, buzzard passed overhead. The buzzards are moulting their flight feathers, giving them rather harrier-like silhouettes in flight.

Mute swans and cygnets, Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

Mallards drifted down the canal. A family of mute swans and their cygnets led a parade of drake mallards. It all looked very purposeful but I couldn't see it. Behind the trees on the other side Canada geese and oystercatchers on Bryn Flash voiced their protest at a passing helicopter.

Swallows under the railway bridge by Horrocks Flash 

The Wigan to Liverpool train line separates Turner's and Horrocks flashes. A few pairs of swallows had started nests underneath.

Horrocks Flash 

The towpath runs alongside Horrocks Flash with cuts through the trees giving excellent views of this end. Horrocks Flash is only slightly smaller than Scotman's Flash and is shaped like the letter E, the towpath runs along the baseline. 

Horrocks Flash 

Black-headed gulls and common terns were making a lot of noise. I wasn't sure if a couple of nests were on the go, there was certainly a lot of courtship and display. The coots were uncharacteristically furtive which suggests the nests had eggs not young. A great crested grebe cruised about with at least one little humbug riding deep in its back feathers. I was surprised to see a drake pochard loafing on a small rock, the pochard was surprised when a cormorant decided to land on that rock regardless of whether anyone was already there. 

Common terns, Horrocks Flash 

Reed buntings and reed warblers sang with the dunnocks, robins and blackbirds in the reedbeds at the end of the flash. The Merlin app told me that the reed bunting I could see singing five yards away was a robin and a blue tit, the sort of response which stops me using it on any regular basis.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

The stretch from here to Platt Bridge where the line between Wigan and Golborne passes over the canal is wooded. Chaffinches, great tits and goldcrests joined the songscape as I left the last of the Cetti's warblers behind. Young great tits bounced and squeaked in the trees, the long-tailed tits were very quiet.

Platt Bridge 

I weighed up whether or not I had the legs to go on from Platt Bridge through Abram to Plank Lane and/or Pennington Flash and decided I wasn't convinced. I'd had a fair walk and the weather had more or less behaved itself, I could — and should — do the walk from Plank Lane to the flashes another day. So I called it quits, getting the 320 back to Wigan and the 132 back to the Trafford Centre.

Wigan flashes

Canada geese, tufted ducks and black-headed gull, Horrocks Flash

There's a distinct difference in our dawn chorus this year compared to previous ones and that's the lack of warblers. A complete absence of a garden warbler and the blackcap moving on after the beginning of May coincided with the removal of some shrubs at the railway station a few doors down. The robin's keeping a low profile lately which I hope means he's being kept busy with hungry mouths. This hasn't stopped the wren, which I know has a brood to feed, keeping singing up to lunchtime nearly every day. Today's dawn chorus surprise was a passing Mediterranean gull.

I keep wondering why I'm so listless lately. I suspect that hearing the dawn chorus so frequently has a hand in it, a consequence of hay fever as much as habitual insomnia. On the plus side it means I get to see the hedgehogs and foxes more often than I would do.

It was another very bright day and seeing as the trains are on strike again I thought I'd take a trip out to the Wigan flashes, something I do rarely because although there are some splendid walks around there they're a bugger to get to from our way. Today's incentive was a spotted crake that's been heard singing from the Horrocks Flash. I've never seen a spotted crake, the likelihood of my seeing a spotted crake this time was close to zero but what the hell, give it a go.

Common blue damselfly, Horrocks Flash

The 126 was twenty minutes late, not unexpected given the road closure in Boothstown for tree-felling. The M60 moved at snail's pace up to the junction with the M62, it took us more than five minutes to get over the Barton Bridge. I began to wonder whether there'd be time to get into Wigan and walk the flashes before the Christmas lights went up. Perhaps I should just go over to Pennington Flash to see if I could get any better photos of the black terns. Or Bickershaw Country Park's on the way, I haven't been yet this year. Or that walk along the Bridgewater Canal between Boothstown and Astley. Anyway, I stuck to it and got the number 9 bus from Leigh into Platt Bridge, walked the length of Victoria Road and joined the Leeds and Liverpool Canal as it passed under the railway bridge.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

There were damselflies a-plenty along the canal. Banded demoiselles fluttered around the hedgerow by the railway bridge. Common blue damselflies zipped across the towpath. I was sure there were a few azure damselflies about but only the common blue damsels were staying still long enough to be identified. A handful of blue-tailed damselflies danced around a bramble bush.

By Horrocks Flash 

There's a bit of woodland between Horrocks Flash and the railway line. I've not been this way before so I had a bit of an explore. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and a coal tit sang in the trees, wrens from the undergrowth. Blackbirds and robins fossicked about in the bushes. An apparently dark bird quietly harvesting willow seeds turned out to be a female bullfinch; her mate kept to the shadows, too, but was less successfully anonymous. For some reason they were being closely followed by a young robin. Perhaps it was confused by the red of the cock bullfinch's breast, perhaps the bullfinches' feeding disturbs a lot of small insects.

Black-headed gulls and lapwings, Horrocks Flash

Horrocks Flash is quite small and it was fairly quiet today. A few black-headed gulls fussed about, mallards, Canada geese lapwings and tufted ducks dozed and a pair of oystercatchers were uncharacteristically silent. Unlike the sedge warblers in the ditches by the wood, the reed warblers in the reedbeds by the flash or the Cetti's warbler in the brambles on the other side of the canal.

Black-headed gull and oystercatchers, Horrocks Flash

Heron, Horrocks Flash

A flock of swifts hawked high over the flash. Lesser black-backs flew by but didn't stop, unlike a heron which flew in and parked itself in the corner of the reeds. I was a bit baffled by a crowd of female banded demoiselle fluttering about in one of the willow trees by the towpath, even though I know what they look like it doesn't immediately register with me when I see them. They are rather lovely.

Banded demoiselle, Horrocks Flash

I carried on down the canal. A pair of swallows hawked low over the water, drifting on towards Platt Bridge. Dunnocks and willow warblers joined the singing blackcaps and chiffchaffs. Sedge warblers and whitethroats sang from Bryn Flash on the other side of the canal. A few azure damselflies settled long enough for me to identify them and a flying pencil rattling past me at head height could only be an emperor dragonfly.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal, approaching Moss Bridge

I crossed Moss Bridge and skirted Scotman's Flash where a few dozen herring gulls and lesser black-backs were loafing with the Canada geese and mallards. I was watching an odd synchronisation of a reed bunting preening at the top of a reed stem while a reed warbler sang at its base when I noticed a dark shape flying across the reedbeds twenty yards away. It was a hobby, scarcely stopping as it caught a dragonfly and carried on its way over the flash.

Scotman's Flash 

For me the problem with the Wigan Flashes is that you always end up with a quarter of an hour's walk through a housing estate to get to a bus stop. I didn't fancy a drag through Poolstock so I headed through Hawkley and got the Leigh bus from Marius Bridge. It was still only teatime and I seriously considered getting off for a wander round Pennington Flash along the way. It's as well I didn't, it was half eight when I got back to feed the cat.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Moss Bridge