Wiganish

Moorhen, Amberswood

It was another of those days when the weather runs through all four seasons in an hour, sometimes twice. The worst of the rain coincided with the brightest sunshine. I had three options planned and I binned each as they'd involve me walking about in the open with no cover for miles. 

I had a think about where I'd not been yet this year that I could get to easily and had plenty of tree cover and decided on a wander around some of the Wigan flashes, I could get the 132 to Wigan from the Trafford Centre and the number one bus to Whitecroft Road and just have a five minute walk into Scotsman's Flash and take it from there. As I waited for the bus to the Trafford Centre the sky went black and it heaved down. If the bus hadn't arrived before the shower finishes I'd have gone home, as it was I kept dry in the bus shelter. 

The bus ride to Wigan is a long one and the bus was old and rattly and overwarm and I stuck it as far as Amberswood and I bailed out. So a walk round Amberswood it was, then.

Amberswood, coming in from Wigan Road 

Unsurprisingly there weren't many people about as I walked in from Wigan Road. There were plenty of singing wrens, robins and chiffchaffs and pairs of long-tailed tits and great tits bounced about the hedgerows. The sky was ominous but the sun shone brightly through the clouds and it was warm enough for me to decide to take my raincoat off. As I wandered through the woods towards the lake goldfinches and a coal tit sang from the tree tops and woodpigeons clattered about.

Amberswood 

There were two pairs and a spare of great crested grebes on the lake. It was difficult to know which bird was in each pair, a pair would do a bit of head waggling and copycat preening and in the process would drift into the other pair which were doing similar and then they'd seem to switch partners. The spare bird, I think a male, was excluded from this and would be the subject of aggressive displays if he got too close.

Amberswood Lake 

Otherwise it was fairly quiet. A couple of black-headed gulls loafed on the water while a few more flew overhead together with lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls. A mute swan cruised about while his mate sat on her nest. Pairs of mallards, coots and moorhens patrolled the lake margins while teal and a Cetti's warbler called from the reeds.

Great crested grebes, Amberswood

Every so often there'd be a quick shower. I didn't fancy walking down through the muddy paths of Low Hall and fancied even less the walk into Platt Bridge for the bus so I decided on having an explore through Amberswood and getting the bus either from Spring View or Ince. There's a network of paths through the woods heading in that direction and I meandered through them a while before settling on the metalled path to Ince after seeing how muddy some of the others were.

Amberswood 

The conifer stands were pretty barren but elsewhere there seemed to be a pair of great tits every ten yards. Robins and wrens were more spaced out but were still plentiful. A couple of pairs of treecreepers were busy and one pair looked to be settling on a nest site. Chiffchaffs, chaffinches and goldfinches sang in the trees. There were a few more people about and every so often I'd be asked if anything was about and I'd answer that it was a bit quiet but it was nice to hear the chiffchaffs back and singing. One chap engaged me in lengthy conversation in one of the clearings as mallards flew into the pool behind us and a heron and a sparrowhawk flew low overhead while we had a couple of showers of rain.

Amberswood, by the path to Ince

A hail shower was the cue to say cheerio and I resumed my walk into the woods. Crossing Ince Brook I noticed a lot of birds in the alders by the pools. A goldcrest was the first I could identify as I approached. Once I got into the trees I saw there was a mixed flock of siskins and redpolls working their way through the alder cones.

Amberswood 

It was getting on and the rain was now steady so I cut the walk short and took the path leading to the bus stop by the cemetery. I was accompanied by an evening chorus of blackbirds, song thrushes, chiffchaffs and robins. I didn't have long to wait for the number nine bus to Leigh and from there I could get the 126 home.

The weather settled down and started to behave itself and I'd have half an hour to wait for the 126 at the bus station so I stayed on the bus on to Higher Folds and had a walk through Colliers Wood and down the path onto Manchester Road and caught the bus there. Robins, great tits and a reed bunting sang along the path while a lot of blackbirds rummaged in the undergrowth. Jackdaws and woodpigeons were making a performance of coming into the trees to roost. As I headed down to Manchester Road a small flock of pied wagtails divided its time between a horse paddock and the rugby pitch, uncertain which of the beasts cut up the ground best for hunting purposes.

Colliers Wood 

Rather despite myself I'd had a very good afternoon's birdwatching walk with a haul of forty-five species.

Kenworthy Woods

Sketch map: Kenworthy Woods

Kenworthy Woods is more than fifty acres of woodland between the River Mersey and the M60 next to Princess Parkway. The bird life is typical of Greater Manchester urban woodland, with a chance of bumping into willow tits if you're lucky. Although there's generally quite a few people about I've not found it to get silly busy and it's quieter than Chorlton Water Park just over the river.

River Mersey, Kenworthy Woods on the left, Chorlton Water Park on the right, and the bridge between the two.

Theres a main path that runs from Chorlton Water Park, over the bridge and through the woods, joining Willenhall Lane just before the motorway. This is a pretty good starting point for a first visit or as an add-on to a visit to the water park. A network of paths run through the woods and there's a nice walk to be had along the riverside path running along the Northern margins. 

Kenworthy Woods

Willenhall Lane runs under a bewildering number of bridges where the clover leaf slip roads of the motorway meet Princess Parkway. Once you've passed the last of them you need to take the next left and walk round the bend for the bus stop. The 101 and 103 go down Princess Road to Moss Side and the city centre, go over the footbridge for the bus stop for the 101 to Wythenshawe or the 103 to the airport via Wythenshawe.

Alternatively, you can take the path North alongside Princess Road, cross the river, walk past the Parkway playing fields and get the bus from the stop by Merseybank Avenue.

Etherow CP and Keg Woods

Etherow Country Park

The original plan for the day was to bob over to Lunt Meadows to see if the weekend's American golden plover was still about but lousy train services put the block on that so I decided to put my trust in buses and went over to Etherow Country Park and have a wander round Keg Wood.

Probably just as well I did: I hadn't checked my camera battery before I came out and it turned out to be flat. Bad enough missing nice shots of species you see regularly, missing out on something unusual that way would have been heart-breaking. Instead, I can bore people about the lovely photos of mandarin ducks, great spotted woodpeckers, coal tits and nuthatches that got away.

Keg Wood

Walking through the car park I had a surprise when a snipe flew in, tried to find somewhere to land, discovered that the car park was full of pensioners intent on having a nice cup of tea in the café, and flew off again. As always, the mandarin ducks on the little canal were being ridiculously photogenic, especially the juvenile male picking blackberries from a dangling bramble. A sparrowhawk and a buzzard soared high overhead. Walking down to where the river goes over the weir I was hoping there might be a dipper around; no joy but a family of grey wagtails were a good consolation prize.

Keg Wood

Keg Wood was busy with roving mixed flocks of small birds. Nuthatches seem to have had a good year, I counted a dozen all told. A couple of flocks of tits each included over half a dozen coal tits and the flock that came to have a look at me as I sat in one of the bus shelter affairs included a goldcrest, a chiffchaff and a couple of treecreepers. I bumped into three great spotted woodpeckers in different parts of the wood, a male and two females. Jays were very much in evidence, bouncing round the oak trees collecting acorns. 

Despite all the signs of Autumn there were still some signs of lingering Summer, especially a common darter dragonfly quartering the garden of the house in the middle of the wood. 

Mersey Valley

Had a wander down from Chorlton to Sale Water Park this afternoon. Ivy Green was dead quiet and Chorlton Ees wasn't much better, aside from the occasional contact call or bunch of leaves moving the wrong way you wouldn't think there were any birds about at all.

It was only when I got to where Cholrton Ees meets Hardy Farm that things got busier, starting with a buzzard flying close overhead as it was being mobbed by a carrion crow.

Carrion crow mobbing a buzzard, Chorlton Ees

Carrion crow mobbing a buzzard, Chorlton Ees

Buzzard, Chorlton Ees

Just across the river from Jackson's Boat there's a small copse of apple trees (including a russet, a Golden Delicious type and a nice rose-red apple, all the results of people chucking their apple cores away); these and the elderberry bushes by them were full of chaffinches, blue tits and blackcaps.

Carrying on down to Sale Water Park a swimming competition meant there wasn't much wildfowl on the water. There was some consolation at the feeding station by the visitor centre with plenty of blue, great and coal tits, a pair of nuthatches and a quick visit from a male great spotted woodpecker. No joy sign of any willow tits but they're always at their most elusive this time of year.

Great spotted woodpecker

Pennington Flash

 A quick potter round Pennington Flash, which is still showing signs of last week's flooding.

The view from the F.W. Horrocks Hide. The spit is completely underwater still.

The pair of Egyptian geese greeted me at the car park where they scrabbled with the swans and geese for the bird food being scattered by the kids. It takes the art out of finding them but it gives a good chance to appreciate the subtleties in the sandy brown plumage.

Egyptian goose, Pennington Flash

Egyptian goose, Pennington Flash

A second calendar year yellow legged gull out on the flash was the first hint of Autumn but there were plenty enough common terns about to still be able to pretend it's Summer.

There was a lot of gadwall about in a bewildering range of plumages from nearly full-grown ducklings to adult females and drakes in various stages of eclipse. A couple of mallard families included very young ducklings.

Male gadwall, Pennington Flash

Male gadwall, Pennington Flash

The ground outside the Bunting Hide was still underwater.

The view from the Bunting Hide

This meant that the stock doves had to come in a bit closer than usual.

Stock dove, Pennington Flash

Stock dove, Pennington Flash

Nice to see a juvenile nuthatch on the feeders.

Juvenile nuthatch

Etherow Country Park

Sketch map of Etherow Country Park

Etherow Country Park is a piece of wooded valley just outside Marple. A wide range of woodland species can be found here, including a good population of mandarin ducks.

River Etherow, Etherow Country Park

There is a 384 bus stop just by the entrance to the Country Park on Compstall Road and a 383 bus stop a little way further down across the road. The 384 runs from Stockport bus station via Romiley train station, the 383 runs from the bus station via Marple train station. During the day they're roughly every 15 minutes. Be careful crossing the road: traffic comes at speed down the steep hill!

If you're starting or ending your visit with a walk through Ernocroft Wood the bus stops for the 394 are just south of the entrance to the Country Park on Glossop Road. This bus goes from Glossop to Stepping Hill, and vice versa, once every two hours.

From Compstall Road, once you've negotiated your way through the car park and decided whether or not to have a cup of tea in the café it's a nice gentle stroll along the banks of the little canal that feeds the boating lake. You won't get very far before the first mandarin ducks show themselves.

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

I cross the canal at the first bridge I come to, as much to avoid cars as to have a good look down to the River Etherow to see if I can spot any grey wagtails or dippers (the best place to see them is near the end of the walk as you approach the wooden bridge to the picnic area).

Dipper, Etherow Country Park

This path joins the road at the point where the river goes over a stepped weir. At this point you can either turn right for a walk through Ernoroft Wood or left for a walk around Keg Wood.

Weir, Etherow Country Park

Keg Wood

Keg Wood is a piece of ancient woodland that used to be managed for shooting. In Spring it's carpeted in bluebells and ramsons. You'll find all the usual woodland suspects. The Goyt Valley, a local stronghold for pied flycatchers, isn't far away so there's a chance you might strike lucky and find one here.

Bluebells, Keg Wood

A metalled track into Keg Wood starts by the house on the corner (please respect that this is somebody's home). As the track curves round behind the house you go through a gate into the wood and then meanders and undulates its way around to bring you back where you started. In this early stretch you can see the river through the trees on your right. 

Just after the first rollercoaster dip the track forks. The path to your right takes you down to Keg Pool and then, eventually, back here. I have a dodgy knee and find the slope here easier to walk up than down so I carry on along the main path. The pool is a decent-sized pond that usually hosts a few ducks, coots and dabchicks and good numbers of dragonflies and damselflies. The Egyptian goose that lived here for a dozen years was frightened by fireworks last year and taken into care. It turned out to be perfectly hale an hearty but can't be released because the people taking care of it don't have a licence for its release.

Keg Wood

There's a house within the wood (again, please respect that it's somebody's home), once you get past that the track gets a bit rougher. Every so often there are benches and there are a couple of wooden bus shelter affairs for when the weather turns temporarily nasty. The second one of these is by a picnic area in a glade called Sunny Corner. Once you pass this you do a big loop round and then down to Keg Pool.

Ernocroft Wood

Ernocroft Wood is a younger piece of woodland covering the east side of the river valley up to Glossop Road. It includes a lot more conifers, including a small, thickly-planted telegraph pole plantation.

Ernocroft Wood

A rough but serviceable track snakes its way up the slope without indulging in the insane undulations of Keg Wood. This leads to the entrance to the country park on Glossop Road. The bus stops are a few minutes' walk down the hill. Walking down the side with the pavement you get some good views across the valley and beyond. Mind how you go crossing the road, it can be quite busy.

Trees and birds

I associate some birds with particular trees or plants.

In some cases the connection's obvious: reed warblers, bearded tits and bitterns are birds of the reedbed, for instance.

Willow tits, Sale Water Park
(In a hawthorn bush)

In other cases the connection's subtler, a coincidence of environmental preferences perhaps, or just a geographical coincidence: the places where I've seen the birds most often happen to have a particular vegetation. These include:

• Blackcap — Sycamore
• Cetti's warbler — Brambles with reeds
• Lesser redpoll — Alder
• Lesser whitetroat — Field bindweed
• Marsh tit — Willow
• Pied flycatcher — Oak
• Redstart — Oak
• Whitethroat — Bramble
• Willow tit — Alder and birch
• Wood warbler — Oak
• Yellowhammer — Hawthorn

It would be a mistake to treat these relationships as hard and fast rules — birds fly where they please without our say so and it would be a mistake to think that any marsh tit that alighted on a branch of alder automatically became a willow tit — but I think it's something I should bear in mind more often, if only to test the idea to destruction.

Carrington Moss

Sketch map of Carrington Moss

Carrington Moss is an unremarkable piece of farmland, which makes it remarkable within Trafford where every piece of green space bigger than a beach towel is marked as prime development space for executive housing. Now you'll never guess what… Which is why I should write it up while it's still there.

Carrington Moss

The northern boundary of the moss is an industrial estate, the petrochemical works being the most obvious landmark.

From Carrington:

The bus stop is near the corner of Manchester Road and Isherwood Road. The buses go through Flixton, turn a sharp left after the garden centre then go down the dead straight Flixton Road then do an over-complicated right turn at the crossroads onto Manchester Road.

• The 247 bus from the Trafford Centre to Altrincham
• The 255 from Manchester via Urmston
• You can catch either of these from Flixton train station (turn left as you leave the station and it's less than a minutes' walk to the bus stop). If you choose to walk down to Carrington, turn right and follow the road down; cross the road before you get to the garden centre (you don't want to be trying to cross at the top of Flixton Road: the motorists are too busy remembering to slow down to look for pedestrians). 

Walk down Isherwood Road to get to Carrington Moss.

From Altrincham

• The 247 bus from Altrincham to the Trafford Centre meanders its way through Broadheath. You want the first stop when it turns onto Sinderland Road. (There's allegedly a bus stop further along Sinderland Road just after Altrincham Sewage Works but I've never found it or seen it from the bus). Cross the road, walk down Heathermount and you'll get to a gap that lets you get onto the dead straight though sometimes overgrown path that's the remains of the old railway line from Irlam to Timperley. Turn left and follow it past the sewage works and on towards Birch Road and the southern end of the moss.

I'm always coming here from north of the Mersey so that's how I'll describe the site.

Walking down Isherwood Road there's farmland on the left and houses then an industrial estate on the right. Towards the end of the road the farmland's replaced by a big electricity station and the industrial estate's hidden by trees. Around this point Isherwood Road becomes Birch Road but you'd never know it. Keep an eye on the skies: you've a good chance of seeing buzzard, kestrel or sparrowhawk and a raven may pass once in a while.

When you get to the security barrier (yes really, it's to stop unauthorised people driving to a well-known football team's training ground) you have a choice. 

• Carry on down Birch Road then turn right at the first opportunity. In Winter this stretch hosts good-sized finch flocks with a good chance of a few bramblings in there.

• Turn left onto the path that follows the fenced-off area. Behind the fence is the Shell Pool nature reserve which is accessible by permit only. The bits of wet woodland surrounding the pool is always worth a look: finches in Winter, warblers in Summer. I keep hoping to find willow tits here but haven't for twenty-odd years. You can get tantalising glimpses of the pool through the trees. Mallard, Canada goose, coot and black-headed gulls are the usual regulars with tufted duck, gadwall and dabchicks as frequent supporting cast. From this perspective you'll usually hear more than you'll see.

Juvenile treecreeper, Carrington Moss

Further on, by the remains of the old Shell plant, the path turns round into a small copse which has its fair share of mixed tit flocks in Winter and warblers in Summer. As you go down the path the trees thin out until they become tree-deep borders to the fields.

The leafy lane going due south from the petrochemical works.

At the first crossing point you should turn left and go back towards Birch Road and on towards the riding school. (I couldn't possibly tell you to continue down past the "No entry" signs and continue on down to the end to meet the path that's the remains of the railway line.) As you turn left the path margins change: on the North side there's a high hawthorn hedge with a few big gaps, to the south there's an open field. You'll usually find yellowhammers and chaffinches in the hedge, in Winter the occasional brambling. In Summer you might strike lucky with lesser whitethroat in the field margins. In late Summer you've a good chance of seeing yellow wagtails feeding in the fields.

Yellowhammer, Carrington Moss

Carrington Moss

Yellow wagtail, Carrington Moss

Pennington Flash

Sketch map of Pennington Flash

Pennington Flash has become one of my regular visits. For years I read about it and thought it out of bounds as it didn't seem feasible by public transport from where I live. One day I had a bit of an explore and it turned out to be dead easy once you know how. Over the past couple of years, and rather to my surprise, my list for this site so far is 98 species. The official list for the site is currently 244 species.

Pennington Flash includes the flash itself, a big lake created as a result of mining subsidence, a collection of small pools, thin wet woodland and a couple of meadows. There are good numbers of wildfowl all the year round, with yet more coming in for the Winter. You also stand a good chance of seeing kingfishers as they fish around the pools. The woodland offers all the usual suspects and you have a very good chance of seeing willow tits here. Pennington Flash is particularly popular for its Winter gull roosts; amongst the hundreds of gulls there there's usually something interesting to find (eventually!): Iceland, yellow-legged and Mediterranean gulls are regular and most years at least one Caspian gull visits.

Dusk from Ramsdale's Hide

Getting there via Leigh

• The V1 bus runs regularly every quarter of and hour from Manchester to Leigh. It's a quick service using the Leigh Guided Busway which is a sort of hybrid bus/tram affair. If you're travelling from outside Greater Manchester it's probably easiest to get a train to Salford Crescent and pick the bus up from there (the bus stop is across the road and a block to the left from the station exit).
• The 34 bus goes from Piccadilly Gardens to Leigh is less frequent and takes a little longer.
• The 126 bus is an hourly service between the Trafford Centre and Leigh. If you miss that you can wait for the 132 bus to Wigan, get off at Sale Lane and get the V1 from there.

Once you arrive at Leigh Bus Station you need to go over to the bus stop on King Street (the side of the bus station opposite to the shopping centre) for the 34 or  the bus station for the 600 910 610 bus (it was easier when they both had the same bus stop but you won't have a long wait either way). Depending on the traffic it's a five or ten minute bus journey. You need to keep an eye out for the junction with the dual carriageway, your bus stop is just after the fire station on the left hand side. From here, cross the road and the main entrance to the country park is opposite the Robin Hood.

It's also possible to walk down the canal from Leigh town centre. It's a nice walk on a fine day. Or get the 584 or 588 to Plank Lane, cross over the canal and either walk along the canal and drop into the country park or go in via the entrance with the little car park a short way down Slag Lane.

Getting there from Wigan and St Helens

• The 600 601 910 610 from Wigan to Leigh and the 34 from St. Helens both go down St. Helens Road past Pennington Flash. The bus stop is nearly opposite the Robin Hood pub. As  you pass through Lowton keep an eye out for the industrial estate on the left, you'll know it because there's a big vet's building by the road. When you see that you know your stop's next.

The main entrance to the country park is just down the road.

Reedmace by Bradshaw Leach Meadow

The country park

Coming in through the main entrance and passing by the little car park you'll have a choice of paths: 

• If you turn left the path takes you round to the south bank of the flash. You'll pass the East Bay Hide and then reconnect with the main path at the bridge over the brook. In Autumn this can be a productive diversion, the hedges around the meadow seem to be a popular stopping point for migrating passerines.
• If you carry on straight ahead the tree-lined path passes Bradshaw Leach Meadow then enters some thin woodland before joining the other path at the brook.

From here you'll walk through the main car park. The country park is very popular, even so it's worth taking your time here to see what's about, especially when the resident wildfowl and gulls out on the water are joined by Winter visitors. The visitor centre is at the end of the car park, this is where the toilets are. 

Black-headed gulls, Horrocks Hide

From here, follow the path along the margin of the flash to the F.W.Horrocks Hide. This overlooks the beginning of the nature reserve end of the flash.The spit of land jutting out in front of the hide is worth checking out, particularly during wader passage. Gulls and, in Summer, terns loaf around with the cormorants at the far end. Later in the year look out for family groups of goosander.

Be warned: this hide is always cold, even in Summer! Mind you, on a really nasty Winter's day you can check out most of the gull roost from this hide rather than feeling quite so exposed as you would standing by the edge of the flash.

A Temminck's stint had turned up and had settled down in a nice place out in the open for a snooze so that everyone to see it from the F.W.Horrocks Hide. Just as everybody got their bins and telescopes trained on the stint this drake mallard came along and plonked himself right in front and wasn't for moving for more than an hour. The brown smudge behind the mallard is the top of the stint's back.

As you come out of the hide the path leads on to the Tom Edmondson Hide and beyond. There's the usual woodland species — mixed tit flocks in Winter, a nice selection of warblers in Summer. The main path is effectively a causeway between a series of small pools. You'll often see dabchicks, teal and shoveler though water rails and reed warblers tend to be heard more often than seen along this stretch.

The Tom Edmondson Hide is built on similar lines as the Horrocks Hide but feels a lot less exposed. It overlooks a couple of pools and a small reed bed with a small gravel patch separating the pools. Ducks often rest up on here and you may see snipe feeding here. These pools are probably the best places to find gadwall at Pennington Flash. There's usually a few herons and often a little egret. It also seems to be a good spot for finding juvenile kingfishers in late Summer.

From Tom Edmondson Hide

Juvenile kingfisher, Tom Edmondson Hide

A few yards further along the path forks. Check out the brambles and reeds here, it's a good place for finding warblers and it seems to be a preferred haunt of singing Cetti's warblers. Not much further is the Ramsdale's Hide. This overlooks a pool which is open to the flash proper. More ducks and waders and very nice too.

The path continues on to the main path. If it's been wet I'd generally prefer to retrace my steps and rejoin the main path there. If time's short or the weather bad you can follow the path back down towards the play area near the visitor centre and visit the hides down here.

Carrying on from Ramdsale's the main path leads on to the canal that acts as the northern border of the park. The choices from here are:

• Turn right and continue in a loop around the wooded areas and small pools, eventually getting to the rest of the hides.
• Turn left and have a wander round the northern part of the park. This is less productive from a birdwatching perspective but is a nice stroll.
• Walk down the canal back to Leigh town centre, which can be a pleasant walk on a Summer's afternoon.

There are three hides and a viewing point in the eastern side of the park. Anticlockwise from the play area the hides are:

• Pengy's Hide. This is a small hide which gives you a full view of one of the pools you can see from the Tom Edmondson Hide. There's a small feeding station by this hide which gives you a taster for the next hide.

Bluebells, wild garlic and three-cornered leeks, Pengy's Hide

• The Bunting Hide. This overlooks the main feeding station. It's worth making yourself comfortable and waiting to see what comes along. Reed buntings and stock doves both sometimes reach double figures and you'll often see good numbers of bullfinches. You may need to wait a while for the willow tits to turn up but when they do they give very good views.

Willow tit

• Teal Hide, including a hide used for educational purposes. This overlooks a pool with a small reedbed at the far end. The Teal Scrape is another place often favoured by family groups of goosanders.

Walking back from these hides it's worth checking out the flash again to see if anything's flown in while you've been having a wander. The car park oystercatcher may also make an appearance.

As you leave the park the bus stops are on your right. All the buses from the stop on this side go to Leigh Bus Station. Cross the road for buses to Wigan and St. Helens.

Useful links

• Leigh Ornithological Society 
• Greater Manchester Birding Forum — Pennington Flash sightings