Walk 12 - Three Shires Head

4.5 miles 1.30pm - 4.30pm. We wanted to 'fill-in' a section of our map that we hadn't been to yet so we chose Three-Shires Head. The weather was great as we left Manchester but got darker and wetter as we got closer to our walk! It looked super foggy when we were eventually parking up and we were worried we were going to get really wet. We did get really wet feet but the weather got better as we went along and was quite bright and warm by the time we finished - not quite warm enough for us to want to take our shoes off and paddle when we got to Three Shires Head though! We noticed today how little there was to look at - initially just grass, marsh grass, ferns and heather. There were NO trees! There was also a distinct lack of birds too. Early on the walk we saw what we thought was a Kite and later we saw a large group of birds flying together near a farm and later still some birds flying between the ferns next to the river. We ID'd these as meadow pipits. At the same time in the river we saw a Grey Wagtail too. Finally we saw the obligatory pheasant! As we approached some houses and then three shires head itself we did eventually see some trees (although they were mostly in the grounds of the houses!) The trees we saw and named on sight were: Rowan, Oak, Ash, Birch, Elder, Sweet Chestnut, Sycamore and Beech Trees. We also saw a tree we didn't recognise and had to ID when we got home (see photo of leaves). When we got home we looked some things up and thought that the kite we saw was actually a kestrel and the tree we didn't know was an aspen! We also named this thistle - a Creeping Thistle.