Local patch

Coal tit

Another warm, dozy day in the garden, the only bit of news being the reappearance of one of the coal tits at the feeders.

I had an evening stroll around the local patch. Blackbirds and song thrushes foraged in the nettles along the footpath, a few more were singing from the trees in the waste ground. A couple of the whitethroats were defending territories in their bramble patches and the usual blackcaps and chiffchaffs were holding forth.

• Blackbird 8, 3 singing
• Blackcap 3 singing
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chaffinch 3, 2 singing
• Chiffchaff 2 singing
• Dunnock 1 singing
• Feral Pigeon 23
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 1
• Greenfinch 1
• House Sparrow 6
• Jackdaw 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 8, 6 young
• Magpie 6
• Robin 3, 1 singing
• Song Thrush 3, 1 singing
• Starling 6
• Whitethroat 2 singing
• Woodpigeon 10
• Wren 6 singing

The map below confirms how small this patch is. The northern boundary is the pale grey line running left to right, the old Trafford Park freight line. The southern boundary is the dark line across the picture, the boundary fence to the United Utilities land between the school and the waste ground. The grey line running up the right-hand side of the picture is the footpath between Old Hall Road and St Modwen's Road.

The remnants of the old cornfields at Barton Clough