Anyway, Ive been plodding around it all spring with very little to show for it. It has been a very quiet and disappointing spring in many ways. The numbers of a few species on the site seem to be down considerably on previous years - Grasshopper Warbler numbers are about half what I would expect. Whitethroats are noticeable by their absence in usual spots, as are Blackcaps. As a result, my dog walking / birding has become less enthusiastic than normal. So, when it came time to take pooch out today I decided to go somewhere a bit farther afield.
I wasn't sure where to go at first, but then I had a light bulb moment and headed off to a place I used to go birding, and just generally knocking about, as a child and into my teens.
I went here:
Here is a place next to the woodlands of Haigh Hall in Wigan. The woodland you can see below the blob in the centre screen is part of Haigh Hall and is mature woodland, in fact some bits of it are classed as ancient. The woodland to the north is Lady Mabel's wood and is new woodland, but more of that later. I decided to park up on Hall Lane, walk through Lady Mabel's Wood to the canal and then along the canal through some areas of farmland. I was hoping for a few species - namely, Tree Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail and possibly Mandarin on the Canal and Spotted Flycatcher down one of the lanes.
Lady Mabel's Wood is an area of woodland owned by the Woodland Trust, but I remember it as open arable farmland (with a little bit of dairy). I used to live quite close to this area, and often walked the dog through Haigh Hall plantations and out onto these fields. I also worked on the farm that is now woodland for a few summers, taking the hay and straw in. So, I remember a very different landscape from what is there now. The agriculture was never on the scale of many farms today. It wasn't far off traditional with overwintered stubbles, rotating crops and small fields and hedges. I remember coveys of Grey Partridges. Lapwings and Skylarks in the hay meadows. Snipe in the wetter areas in winter and Brown Hares aplenty. I also remember being very disappointed when I found that the area had been bought by the Woodland Trust as I knew many of these species would lose their habitat. Although I've been back (only once or twice) since it was planted up, I've never really walked through the woodland, so today was going to be an interesting experience.
From Agriculture to Alder and Ash
The three images above were taken in an area that used to be a Barley Field. It was quite odd to stand in a place where I used to throw straw bails onto a trailer and be surrounded by trees. However, I have to say that the Woodland Trust have done a pretty good job here. It doesn't feel at all like these trees have been planted. It feels very natural. There are plenty open areas too which were buzzing with various bees and hoverflies. Essentially this is identical habitat to my usual patch. It might even be a similar age - around 15 years old - but I have to say there was so much more wildlife activity here than at Viridor. I even got my first decent views of Garden Warbler this year which is a real rarity at Viridor. There were loads of Tits, Robins, Wrens, Warblers etc etc. There were plenty newly fledged birds around too as well as obvious calls from chicks in nests. I was quite impressed.
At the northern most corner of the site was an open patch looking onto adjacent fields. Years ago these were grazed quite heavily by dairy cattle and sheep, but today I was surprised to see a huge expanse of Buttercups with odd patches of Ragged Robin and a few Orchids.
The photo above shows those fields, it also shows, on the extreme left, the start of a strip of woodland that is literally one tree wide by maybe 100m long that is classed as Ancient Woodland - I studied it as a site for my dissertation! I seem to remember that part of the ambition of the Woodland Trust was to re-connect this woodland with Haigh Hall. They appear to be succeeding!
Also on the site (I won't say where) someone has put half a dozen feeders out which were well stocked with food, and attracting quite a good variety of birds, including lots of juvenile Blue and Great Tits, and a Coal Tit that came really close but wouldn't sit still for a decent photo!
I continued up to and along the Leeds Liverpool Canal heading out of Wigan towards Blackburn, a route I used to walk regularly. Again I was surprised that the fields adjacent were not being intensively farmed, at least at the moment - a large pile of paper pulp suggested that might change. But compared to years ago when they were grazed heavily by sheep and dairy cattle it was a surprise and I counted several pairs of Lapwings with young taking advantage of the cover and, presumably, plentiful food supply.
Buttercups as far as you can see
One of the disappointments of the walk along the canal was the complete lack of any Dragonflies or Damselflies. There was plenty floating and marginal vegetation so I was expecting at least a few Blue-tailed Damselflies or maybe Large Reds. I also had outside expectations of some Red-eyed Damselflies as they occur on other parts of the canal. But no, absolutely nothing at all. Very disappointing.
Turning off the canal I walked down Pendlebury Lane where I had plenty finches and sparrows, including Tree Sparrows. This is one of the few locations in the Borough where you can see this species, and they were showing off in style, scrapping in the hedges. I had hoped for a Yellow Wagtail or two in the fields. They could have been there, but the height of the vegetation stopped me seeing much in many of the fields. I also thought I might have had an outside chance of Spotted Flycatcher (seem to remember seeing one in the area when I was a teenager!!!) but unfortunately not.
About halfway down this lane is a huge old railway bridge, known locally as the twenty bridges due to the number of 'arches'. Its a pretty impressive structure and the area around it used to be fenced off - not that it stopped me going in. Today there are no fences and the area is totally open, so I had to have a mooch. Needless to say the area has changed massively since I was last there 20+ years ago. The river here always had a Kingfisher on it, and it still looked good for one. Even better in fact. I didn't spend long and will need to go back to have a better look. I remember that the number of thrushes used to be incredible in winter, as there was so much Hawthorn in the area. Now I know I don't need to squeeze through a gap in a fence I'll have a look again in November and December.
From here it was a pretty quiet walk back to the car, but it was a very enjoyable couple of hours. The species list wasn't massive, but it was bigger than my usual patch and I missed a few that I really shouldn't have. I'll definitely be back.
