A simpler and so much nicer world

Tuesday 30 June 2020

Dave Steel

David Steel has been recording birds – and other wildlife on the Manchester Mosslands ever since he was a child. Dave knows every nook and cranny, and he sees the area as his own. Dave often leads guided walks on the mosses and his blogs capture his

Sedge warbler by Dave Steel

Mosslands birding legend Dave Steel finishes his 30 Days Wild adventure with a poignant and beautiful round-up and a hope that we do not lose some of the incredible characters we find on the mosses.

Well as my Swan Song to this month’s summing up each day in the Wild is upon me, it felt right to see how the current situation is panning out for our Mosslands Songsters.

Their season of renewal keeps pace with the summer with some already lessening their efforts to light up the airwaves with their territorial claims through song.

As our personal world has had to hold its breath and see how the dark side of nature pans out for mankind, we have been aware, or not, of such outpourings of mostly sweet ear-caressing songs. Luckily, we will continue to enjoy these bursts of notes that this year, in particular, when holding onto our Mosslands wildlife’s normality has been a lifeline for many a wanderer upon this truly wondrous open space.

Starting in the West where, the last few, corn bunting of our whole Mosslands are still delivering their ‘jangling keys’ quirky song, with curlews, still trying desperately to hang on in this lowland ‘upland’ landscape, are still delivering their haunting song that must surely still send shivers down spines.

Reed bunting contentedly chipping out their so unassuming song, swallow disjointedly twittering out their who knows what statements, as they glide so effortlessly by, whilst yellow wagtail do just enough to get us to look for them and when we do we realise that with such looks who needs an operatic score.

Yellowhammer, oh please don’t get me onto the subject of these so very-Mosslands birds, promise that they will cheerily be the last of our summers choristers. Greenfinch try so lazily to deliver their wheezing summer sunshine notes and skylark so high in our Mosslands sky deliver a resounding celebratory song of all that our beautiful greenbelt landscape holds and hopes in perpetuity to hold onto for all of us, and the generations to follow.

Whitethroat, sedge warbler and grasshopper warbler, but summer sunshine visitors, still offer their quirky songs from the jumbled bits of vegetation that the tidy brigade have not yet swept away in their sterile efforts to create dead landscapes from places where the WILD survives. My hope’ after these daily updates from Salford’s/Greater Manchester’s/this Northwest outpost of open wondrous landscape’ is that these songs of life will forever fill our inner wild with dreams of a simpler but oh so much nicer world.