Stretford and Sale Water Park

I'm half convinced that the blue tits have given up on the nestbox at the bottom of the garden and moved on, though I'd be happy to find out I'm wrong. The first of the young house sparrows made a fleeting visit yesterday, I think it's one of the silver team family. Judging by the adults' hard work gleaning aphids in the sycamores there are plenty more mouths to feed.

Goldfinches

Between the sparrows, titmice and goldfinches the feeders are taking a bit of a hammering. I've been buying huge pine cones that have been steeped in fat and sunflower seeds and they've been a great success, not least because they don't disintegrate and leave a carpet of useless fat crumbs on the ground like the fat blocks do. Even the dunnocks can't be doing with the fine detritus from the blocks and it just kills off any vegetation on the ground. So I'll be sticking with the pine cones for the foreseeable.

I took advantage of today's downpour to go on a proper walk, the traffic on the footpaths was more like a usual weekday afternoon. Walked down to Stretford Ees, explored a path I didn't know that took me to Crossford Bridge the wrong side of the canal and tram line to where I was planning to go, down the canal back to Stretford Ees to Sale Water Park and thence to the other side of Chorlton for the bus home.

The trees and bushes about Stretford Ees and Sale Water Park were full of singing blackcaps, chiffchaffs, robins and wrens and there were a lot of blackbirds in evidence. A lone whitethroat sang from one of the hawthorns by Kickety Brook. At this point I almost turned tail to go home the rain was so bad but I decided I'd got that far and couldn't get a lot wetter so carried on.

Broad Ees Dole was more productive than usual. A reed warbler singing by the Teal Pool was a first for the year, ditto a sedge warbler singing from the ditch by the path. Looking from the hide there was a group of five goosanders, a pair of tufted duck and two pairs of teal. Two pairs of coots had young.

Goosander, Broad Ees Dole

Another couple of reed warblers were singing from flag iris clumps in Sale Water Park and more chiffchaffs and blackcaps were singing from the willows. A pair of crows took great exception to a passing heron which suggests they had a nest nearby but I couldn't spot it. Mind you, they could just be doing it out of spite. They didn't bother about the small flock of ring-necked parakeets that hollered their way past at the same time. As I was approaching the (closed) car park I noticed a young heron keeping its head down in the rain.

Juvenile heron, Sale Water Park

The rain started getting heavy again and I'd had a good walk so I decided not to carry on walking up past Jackson's Boat and Hardy Farm for my bus home, opting instead to get the tram for  a stop to catch the bus at Barlow Moor Road. As I set off for the tram stop a willow tit flew across the path. It's always nice to see a willow tit.