Moore

Peacock

After two days' grim weather where walking was limited to shopping and walking to bus stops I wanted to take advantage of what promised to be a decent sort of day so the plan was I'd go over to Moore Nature Reserve for a morning's wander then move on to one or two other places. The plan was. In the event I spent six hours wandering round Moore in glorious sunshine and surrounded by birdsong. 

River Mersey by Chester Road 

I got the train to Warrington and rather than bothering with buses I walked over to Warrington Bridge and down Chester Road. In the past I've made the mistake of heading down the wrong road at the roundabout here and I've learned to ignore everything except the river. If the Mersey's on my right-hand side I've got the right road. The Canada geese and mallards on the river agreed with me, as did the titmice bouncing through the roadside trees and the robins singing in gardens.

Lesser celandines

Just after the junction with Slutchers Lane I dropped down onto the Transpennine footpath and walked between the old Latchford Canal and the river to the viaducts. Mallards and moorhens drifted about in the canal, which is now little more than a long and very thin pond densely fringed with reeds and willows on this side and back gardens on the other. Brimstone butterflies fluttered about the margins of the path. Titmice bounced and sang in the trees, robins and wrens struck poses to sing in bushes, goldfinches and chaffinches sang from treetops. There was a tiny flock of siskins, four or five at most, it was difficult to keep track of them as they skipped through the alders and willows past a charm of goldfinches.

Latchford Canal on the left, the Mersey on the right

I passed under the railway viaducts and immediately turned right onto the path into Moore Nature Reserve. Then stood to one side to let a group of volunteers pass by after what looked like a major litter-picking session. I'd be passing more of them as I walked down the path. The trees were noisy with the songs of robins, wrens, great tits and chiffchaffs. They were joined a little further along by a song thrush and some chaffinches and carrion crows and magpies called in the background. The sun brought out the peacock butterflies and they spent most of their time basking on the paths.

Moore Nature Reserve 

Pumphouse Pool 

I took the side path and had a look over Pumphouse Pool from the gap in the hedgerow that had been Colin's Hide. I'd been hearing black-headed gulls on the way up, there were about fifty of them clamouring on the pool. Pairs of mallards, coots and tufted ducks quietly went about their business, cormorants sat on willow roots and dried their wings, and dabchicks hinneyed in the reed margins. About halfway down the pool I noticed a large nest in the tree by the cormorants. It was way too big, and low, for a crow's nest and it looked too structurally sound for a cormorant's nest so it was probably an old heron's nest. Or not so old: as I was looking at it a heron's head poked up and rearranged some of the sticks on top of the parapet.

Moore Nature Reserve 

Walking back to the main path I was serenaded by a coal tit from the top of a gorse bush. The moment the camera came out of the bag the coal tit hopped up into a birch sapling and sang from behind the cover of a mass of catkins.

The bird song was sustained as I walked down beside Pumphouse Pool. Blackbirds, dunnocks and a reed bunting joined in the medley. An oystercatcher called as it passed overhead and out of sight. A buzzard called as it circled on the thermals high overhead. 

Great crested grebe

I took the path into Birch Wood and checked out this side of the pool from the Pumphouse Hide in the company of a mistle thrush that wanted to know what I was doing but didn't want me to know it was there. Mistle thrushes don't do inconspicuous very well, they have a woodpigeon-like habit of barging about. Out on the pool there were some more tufted ducks and at least a dozen teal — the whistling in the tree roots sounded like more than a dozen of them — and a great crested grebe cruised about in the open water.

Pumphouse Pool 

Birch Wood 

Birch Wood 

Siskins and goldfinches fidgeted about the treetops deep in the wood. Great tits, robins and wrens bustled about in the bracken. It was all very agreeable.

Birchwood Pool 

Dabchicks hinneyed from the Birchwood Pool. Coots, mallards and tufted ducks drifted about on the water and pairs of great crested grebes barked at each other. There was someone already at the hide. We let on and swapped notes. "There's usually a dabchick comes across here about now," he said. And blow me, so it did.

Mallards

I walked on to the Lapwing Pool, where the ducks came close enough to the hide for photography. 

Mallard

Wigeon

The whistle of a wigeon was a surprise. There was just the one. A couple of pairs of gadwalls cruised about with the coots, tufties and mallards.

Gadwalls

Lapwing Pool

I checked the bus times. I'd just missed the 62 bus from Moore — the bus to Warrington passes through about the same time as the one to Runcorn — and I had an hour to wait for the next one so I went for a wander round Lapwing Wood.

Lapwing Wood

Goldcrests added to the songscape and bullfinches sighed in wild cherry trees. Treecreepers and long-tailed tits flitted about with beakfuls of moss, the treecreepers heading for big old, decaying, willow trees and the long-tailed tits diving into bramble patches. Nuthatches called but weren't seen, jays were seen but not heard. 

The bridge over the canal

On a whim I crossed the Latchford Canal, which hereabouts just looks like a more open stretch of wet woodland, and joined Lapwing Lane. It occurred to me that I've never walked the full length of the lane as it curves round the outside the reserve and back round to complete the letter D at the car park. So I did.

Buzzard

I'd been expecting, but not hearing, Cetti's warblers in the reeds and wet scrub in the reserve. Instead I heard one singing from a tiny patch of flag iris by a brook out in the open country. As I was listening to it a buzzard glided by and headed for the Ship Canal. At the bend in the road the ploughed fields were busy with flocks of stock doves and linnets, skylarks sang and a little egret fossicked about in the field margins.

The edge of Lapwing Wood 

Lapwing Lane 

I carried on round and past the houses then back into the reserve. The already crowded songscape was added to by the greenfinches singing in the hawthorns in the glades.

Lapwing Lane 

Bridgewater Canal, Moore

I'd missed another pair of buses and there was forty minutes to wait for the next. I wasn't convinced I had the legs for much more exploration so I walked into Moore and sat by the Bridgwater Canal watching the mallards bully the coots back while blackbirds chased each other in the trees. There are worse ways of waiting for a bus to Warrington.

Moore

Sketch map: Moore Nature Reserve

Moore Nature Reserve is a very rich wedge of wet woodland between the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal just Southwest of Warrington. The fair-sized pools attract a variety of wildfowl, the birch and alder woodland passerines and woodpeckers. This is one of those places where you might realistically dream of seeing a lesser spotted woodpecker.

There are two straightforward approaches to a visit to Moore by public transport.

From Moore

The most direct route is to walk up from Moore village. The X30 between Chester and Warrington and the 62 between Warrington and Murdishaw are hourly buses with stops either side of the road next to the junction with Moore Lane. Walk up Moore Lane and over the bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal and you're in the reserve. Be careful on this road, as well as the traffic going to the reserve's car park there are also lorries going to and from Port Warrington. 

Manchester Ship Canal from Moore Lane

For a first time visit your best bet is to carry on about a hundred yards up Lapwing Lane to the hide overlooking Lapwing Pool. As well as the waterfowl on the pool there's generally plenty of small bird action as it's a favoured bird feeding area with the visitors. From there there's a network of walks through Birch Wood or you could double back and take the path past the other pools and on towards Warrington. If you've plenty of time it's a very good idea to do both.

Birch Wood 

From Warrington 

Alternatively you could come in via Warrington. It's not a long walk from the town centre down Chester Road. For a first time visit you might prefer to get the X30 or the 12, getting off the 12 at Gainsborough Road and walking down a little or getting off the X30 at the next stop, Taylor Street. (The 12 turns into Gainsborough Road and heads for Latchford.) Whether by bus or foot you want to be going over to the side of the road by the river. Not far past the Slutchers Lane bridge over the river, and way before the swing bridge over the canal, you'll see a gap in the fence and a signpost for the Transpennine Trail. Descend the steps and you're on the trail. 

Walking along the Transpennine Trail

The path runs between the Mersey on your right and an overgrown relict of the Runcorn and Latchford Canal on your left. The first indication of either is likely to be the sound of mallards, moorhens and Cetti's warblers. Back gardens back onto the canal and for most of the next hundred yards or so the river's screened by trees so there's usually light woodland birds about. When the path emerges onto the road passing under the railway viaduct join it and you'll find the entrance to Moore Nature Reserve just after the viaduct on your left. (If you're travelling on the train between Warrington Bank Quay and Chester this viaduct is where you'll cross the Mersey). 

Approaching the viaduct

The path into the reserve runs alongside the railway line for a bit before turning and heading off for Lapwing Lane. There is a series of pools behind the trees on your right hand side, most of which have hides or viewing screens (regrettably the local vandals sometimes have their way with these). There are also side paths leading into the woodland.

Walking in from the Transpennine Trail 

Birch Wood

Pumphouse Pool 

On a first visit I'd recommend walking the path between Lapwing Lane and the viaduct to have a look at the pools, each of which has its own character then having a meander round the woodland. The paths are generally quite good though inevitably there will be puddles in and after wet weather. 

Along the Mersey

Black-tailed godwit, West Bank

A report of a couple of scaup at Moore Nature Reserve was a reminder that I've not been there in ages so I got the train to Warrington and walked down. It's been so long since I've done this walk that despite its being a dead straight run from the station to the river and along the river down Chester Road I hared down the wrong road from the big roundabout. Twice. Still, third time lucky.

River Mersey, Warrington 

A pair of buzzards circled low over Warrington town centre, upsetting the pigeons and lesser black-backs. It was a bright, sunny morning with enough cloud about for me to take heed of the weather forecast and carry my raincoat. The river was high but still nowhere near the tidemarks on the bank from the New Year floods. Cormorants and mallards gently drifted downstream. I heard an unfamiliar call from the far bank but my efforts at identifying it were thwarted by the delivery of a load of asphalt to a road-digging gang. The first of the many mixed tit flocks of the day bounced through the trees by the river.

I dropped down onto the Transpennine Route and followed it along the old canal cut. Back gardens abut the other side of the canal. Fancy having Cetti's warblers as a garden tick! Mallards dabbled about in the canal and one pair of moorhens had young chicks. Another couple of mixed tit flocks bounced through the trees, each time it was a struggle to pick up many of the runners and riders and I was going by hearing more than by sight. The long-tailed tits were obvious enough but the blue tits, great tits and chiffchaffs were actively furtive.

The Mersey Viaduct 

At the railway viaduct I joined the path into Moore Nature Reserve. Wrens, robins and more mixed tit flocks moved through the trees. Robins, blackbirds and dunnocks rummaged in the verges while woodpigeons and magpies barged about the treetops making as much noise as possible. Perhaps in protest at having a buzzard sitting in one of the trees.

Moore Nature Reserve 

Pumphouse Pool 

I looked over Pumphouse Pool from the charred stumps that used to be Colin's Hide. I'd been seeing a few dragonflies along the way — migrant hawkers patrolling the hedgerows and the occasional common darter sunning itself on the path — but nothing like what there was here. Common darters swarmed over this end of the pool. There may have been ruddy darters out there, too, I can't tell them apart at any distance. All the darters close to the bank were common darters. A broad-bodied chaser shot across the pool, I was surprised as I'd have guessed it was late to be seeing those.

Heron

Small groups of mallards and gadwalls lurked around the edges of the pool while coots, tufted ducks, great crested grebes and dabchicks puttered about in the open water. A couple of cormorants loafed on sticks. Black-headed gulls flew over but didn't settle. I walked round to the Pumphouse Hide where I picked up a couple of shovelers amongst the mallards. A large mixed tit flock which almost had as many chiffchaffs as blue tits bounced around in the trees round the hide.

Birch Wood 

I walked through Birch Wood. Chiffchaffs squeaked, wrens and robins sang, there were yet more mixed tit flocks, every one a challenge to pick through as they bounced through the leaves and twigs. It looks like it had been a good year for both blue tits and long-tailed tits.

A flock of Canada geese sitting on the island on Birchwood Pool were in a grumbly mood. The island was fringed with gadwalls, mallards and tufted ducks.

There's a feeding station by the path to the car park. I hadn't realised this, I just wondered why there were so many small birds fussing about in the hedgerows and had stopped to let them move ahead of me which they definitely weren't doing. Great tits, chaffinches, coal tits and blue tits flitted to and fro. In the end I had to make my apologies and walk by, which didn't much fuss the great tits and coal tits.

Gadwalls 

It started to rain and I put my coat and cap on. I walked down the road and joined the path to the Lapwing Pool. This is where the scaups had been seen over the weekend. There was a chap there having no luck with them, he told me a chap who'd been in earlier had had no luck and I had no luck with them either. So I had to content myself with watching a kingfisher zip across the pool a few times while a crowd of gadwalls felt the fires in the blood welling up inside them. A couple of migrant hawkers kept tempting me to point a camera at them as they patrolled the nearby reeds, darting off at abrupt right angles whenever the possibility arose. The chaffinches, robins and great tits rummaging about by the hide were too close and too fidgety for photographs.

Moore Nature Reserve 

The showers had passed over and it was sunny as I walked down into Moore. I checked the mallards on the Ship Canal to make sure the scaups weren't hiding in plain sight. I had ten minutes' wait for the X30 to Chester, changed at Murdishaw for the 79C to Liverpool and got off just over the river by the bridge on West Bank.

Silver Jubilee Bridge from West Bank

The wind got up as I walked down into West Bank Docklands Park and the clouds and light were ominous. The high tide was starting to ebb and already on the far bank there were lines of redshanks and shelducks on the tideline while crowds of herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed on the mud behind them. 

Redshank 

I walked round into West Bank and the rain started, big blobs of water at first then it became biblical. I tiptoed past pied wagtails on the path and watched the mallards, black-headed gulls and waders on the rocks and mud beneath the seawall. Redshanks skittered about and godwits probed the mud. The first godwit I saw was a bar-tailed godwit so I assumed the next one was until I got closer and saw it was a black-tailed godwit. All told I saw six godwits, all of them on their own well away from the others, and four were black-tailed, two bar-tailed. Which I suppose is a lesson to me to keep my eyes open and not make assumptions.

Black-tailed godwit

Redshank and black-tailed godwit
The godwit seems to have caught the grandfather of all ragworms.

Bar-tailed godwit 

Way over a mudbank not far downstream from the Millennium Bridge was awash with large gulls. Even from here in this light I could pick out the lesser black-backs and very occasional great black-backs. There were darker objects that may have been young gulls or lumps of wood. And there was one very bright ginger object with a paler head. So the ruddy shelduck was still about.

Herring gulls and ruddy shelduck 

I carried on walking onto Spike Island. The ruddy shelduck still stuck out like a sore thumb even though the crowd was dispersing as the water retreated. Teal dabbled in the mud by the locks with a couple of dozen redshanks.

The canalside was awash with pigeons and magpies and there were plenty of Canada geese and mallards but, strangely, no mute swans or coots. A pair of mute swans and their couple of full-grown cygnets loafed with a few mallards and moorhens on the large puddle that's usually a pond.

Herring gulls, lesser black-backs, carrion crows and cormorants 

I found a seat overlooking the mudbank for a closer look at the ruddy shelduck and it had gone. All the dark objects were young gulls or curlews. There was no ginger object. I'd convinced myself that I'd hallucinated it and somehow taken a photo of the hallucination when I found the bird in a crowd of black-headed gulls on this side of the bank though just as far away as before. At this point I realised I'd been holding my breath.

Black-headed gulls and ruddy shelduck 

A perfectly-staged rainbow appeared over the Millennium Bridge, the wind dropped and the rain died down. I pottered about Spike Island in the sunshine without adding anything to the day's tally.

Millennium Bridge 

The thing I always forget about getting the 110 back to Warrington from Widnes, besides their being every forty minutes, is that they arrive at Warrington Bus Station five minutes after the 100 to Manchester has left and with two minutes to run across the road for the train back home or to Urmston. There was an hour's wait for the next 100 and Forty minutes for the next train to Urmston. By the time I'd walked home from Urmston or waited for the bus and walked home from the Urmston Hotel I could get a shop in, get the next train to Oxford Road and stay on it because it becomes the train home. Which I did.