Stretford

An uncooperative whitethroat, Barton Clough

A stroll around the local patch came up with four singing whitethroats, my first of the year. There were also four singing blackcaps and three chiffchaffs. It was nice to hear a song thrush in full flow, they've been a bit quiet lately.

• Blackbird 13, 5 singing
• Blackcap 4 singing
• Blue Tit 5
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chaffinch 1
• Chiffchaff 3, 2 singing
• Feral Pigeon 14
• Goldfinch 10, 3 singing
• Great Tit 3
• Greenfinch 4
• House Sparrow 6
• Long-tailed Tit 1
• Magpie 12
• Robin 3, 1 singing
• Song Thrush 1 singing
• Whitethroat 4 singing
• Woodpigeon 22, 5 singing
• Wren 8 singing

On a whim, instead of going home I headed over to the canal and walked through from Bridgewater Way, past Kellogg's factory, down to Stretford tram station and thence home. The towpath was heaving with cyclists, I can't wait for the current crisis to end so we can have our footpaths back.

A few lesser black-backs and a lone black-headed gull drifted overhead and there was a single herring gull perched on a roof by Stretford Marina. Plenty of chiffchaffs, blackcaps and wrens singing by the canalside and there was a pied wagtail on the little cut by Kellogg's. One of the pairs of Canada geese had a couple of goslings. No sign of any buzzards today but a soaring male sparrowhawk and a kestrel warning a carrion crow off (presumably trying to keep it away from a nearby nest somewhere in the work yard on the other side of the canal) more than compensated.