Stretford

Stretford Meadows

Feeling tired and achy, and more than a bit guilty about having for the second day running had another lie-in rather than go out for the intended sea watch, I decided to try and walk it off. 

Started off with a stroll over Stretford Meadows. Forty years ago this was the local municipal tip, it's been capped and grown over since then. It's never spectacular birdwatching but often rewarding. 

Stretford Meadows with the M60 in the background

The weather today was unpromising to the point of being dreich. There were a couple of small tit flocks and plenty of magpies. A jay was very quietly collecting acorns by the path. Unusually, there were four (or five, I'm not sure whether or not the adult male had circled back when my back was turned) kestrels hunting over the open space.

Jay collecting acorns

Kestrel

I decided not to take the path down by Kickety Brook and then on to Stretford Ees and Sale Water Park. Instead I nipped past the cricket pitch (forgetting, as always, what a bloody horrible path this is) and got the bus over to Longford Park.

Both Longford Park and Rye Bank Fields were very quiet. A family party of five bullfinches flitting round the tree tops at the end of Rye Bank Road were the only unusual sighting.

Nuthatch, Longford Park