Jumbles

Jumbles Reservoir 

I was on the train heading back to Manchester. For some reason I had a look at the train departures at Bolton, no idea why as I was all for getting into Oxford Road and getting the next train back home for a bacon butty and a pot of tea. I got off at Bolton, got the Clitheroe train, which was packed, got off at Bromley Cross and headed off for a walk round Jumbles Country Park. Sometimes I'm just around for the ride, I'm not in the driving seat.

Ousel Nest Meadows 

Crossing the line at the station I walked down the road to Ousel Nest Meadows and followed the path to Jumbles. Blackbirds, song thrushes, wrens and robins dominated the songscape with backing vocals from dunnocks, woodpigeons and nuthatches and contributions from a pair of jays. Great tits, long-tailed tits and greenfinches quietly went about their business. A curlew flew by, heading for the hills as I crossed a clearing. Siskins quietly flitted about the tops of some big alders.

Ousel Nest Meadows 

Bradshaw Brook 

I got to the bridge where the reservoir outflow becomes Bradshaw Brook and looked in vain for dippers or wagtails. I crossed and climbed into Jumbles Country Park, my huffing and puffing up the gentle incline confirming that I need to get some hillwalking done to get legs and wind up to snuff before the hay fever season. The path splits here, the Kingfisher Trail following the brook down into Bolton, a walk for another day, and the other doing a circuit round Jumbles Reservoir and back to the road to the station. I had a walk round the reservoir.

Jumbles Country Park 

Blue tits, great tits, coal tits, chiffchaffs and goldcrests joined the songscape in the trees round the reservoir, though they were hard work to spot despite most of the trees still only being in bud. 

Jumbles Reservoir 

It was quiet on the reservoir. A couple of lesser black-backs loafed on buoys. Pairs of Canada geese and a single great crested grebe cruised about and mallards hugged the banks. The sun poked out properly and it was all very picturesque. 

Jumbles Reservoir 

Jumbles Reservoir 

The trains back to Bolton are every half hour. I got to the end of Grange Road, with its very busy rookery, and checked the trains. I'd have five minutes to wait for the train connecting with the airport train that connects easily with the last train home for an hour and a half. The day ended with the habitués of Oxford Road Station seeing an old man hurtle between platforms four and five and dive onto the train just before the whistle blew.

Jumbles

Cormorant 

It was one of those days with awkwardly-scheduled errands so it was teatime before I got off for a walk and on a series of whims found myself getting off the train at Bromley Cross for a walk around Jumbles Country Park.

Bradshaw Brook 

I crossed over onto Grange Road then took a path through Ousel Nest Meadows towards Bradshaw Brook. The trees and bushes were thick with birdsong, robins, wrens, chiffchaffs and blackbirds mostly with great tits, blue tits and coal tits joining in every so often. 

Wood anemones 

I walked down to the brook to see if I might bump into a dipper or a wagtail but though the scenery looked right it wasn't my day for them.

Bradshaw Brook 

I wandered along the path by the brook and on to the bridge over the brook at the base of the dam holding Jumbles Reservoir. Goldfinches, chaffinches and greenfinches joined in the songscape and a couple of pheasants tried to get in the act, calling from deep cover. A couple of siskins were almost but not quite silent, I caught their contact calls as they passed through the conifers by the path.

Jumbles Reservoir 

I did a circuit of Jumbles Reservoir. A flock of Canada geese made the most noise, there were more mallards but they generally went about their business very quietly except a couple of times when the fire in the blood got too much for a couple of drakes. I found a moorhen, a great crested grebe and a few cormorants but oddly no coots or tufted ducks which I tend to think of as Pennine reservoir staples. A handful of black-headed gulls flew about, a couple of lesser black-backs and a herring gull loafed on the water and a pair of mute swans cruised about away from the crowds.

Canada geese and cormorants 

A raven was chased over the reservoir by a pair of angry carrion crows where it met a less than rapturous welcome from the very well occupied rookery at the end of Grange Road and carried on its way.

Jumbles Reservoir 

Jumbles Reservoir 

I completed the circuit and walked back down Grange Road, getting to the station with a minute to spare for the next train back to Manchester. I was exceptionally lucky with the connections at Salford Crescent and Oxford Road — exceptionally lucky — and the journey home from Bromley Cross took forty-eight minutes. It has been known for it to take that long for a connecting train at Salford Crescent so it was a bit nerve-wracking at times. Still, mustn't knock it: I'd had a very nice walk, there had been plenty about and I can offer nothing but praise for the trains. Which was nice.