Nigel Balding is hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare marsh orchid among the wildflowers on the path to Pestfurlong Moss, but it's likely a couple of weeks too late. Above, a sparrowhawk and a magpie are seen squabbling in mid-flight, presumably over rights to a recently deceased pigeon below on the ground. It's easy to forget that the M62 is only metres away.
The lowland raised peat bog is a small piece of land, about 0.4 hectares, nestled between the housing of Gorse Covert in Birchwood and junction 11 of the motorway. However, with the country's climate-critical peatlands disappearing at an alarming rate, the significance of Pestfurlong Moss far exceeds its size.
Until its restoration, it was in danger of disappearing, writes Cheshire Live 's Kevin Gopal. READ MORE: Drugs boss who claims he wants to change his ways is 'haunted' by links to notorious Manchester crime family Kevin's experience Then it's down the path, past the willow tree tunnels, and on to the bog proper. I soon regret not bringing wellies and shortly afterwards even site manager Neil Oxley of the Woodland Trust suggests we've gone far enough if we're to stay dry.
That's the mark of the restoration's rewetting success. In truth, Pestfurlong Moss isn't the most glamorous countryside, even though it dates back 10,000 years to the ending of the last ice age. When the writer Daniel Defoe visited similar land at Chat Moss in Salford in 1724, he wrote: "the surface at a distance looks black and dirty and frightful.