Mersey Valley

Juvenile ring-necked parakeet, Jackson's Boat

Business as usual in the garden. Lots of chirping and singing but now everything's in full leaf it's the devil's own job to do an accurate count. I reckon that sixty-odd starlings that descended on the garden a couple of months ago could disappear in an instant in those sycamores on the railway embankment. The sparrows are working hard saving the roses from greenfly and the goldfinches are stripping away the dandelion clocks. A low-flying pair of Canada geese were a surprising addition to the morning's viewing.

One of the house sparrows looking for aphids

Had an afternoon stroll into Stretford, through Stretford Ees to Sale Water Park, nipping through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat, on to Hardy Farm and then back home.

Walking past the station towards the town centre it was good to see half a dozen swifts hawking around. A couple of dark shapes looked distinctly un-swiftlike. Eventually they drifted close enough for me to be sure they were a couple of buzzards. They were both distinctly darker than the usual ones I see round here, it took a while to be able to pick out the dark carpal patch on the underwing.

Walking down the road towards Hawthorn Road and Stretford Ees I was pleased to see three house martins swooping and singing and visiting last year's nests. I still haven't seen any around Stretford Mall and Victoria Park, they seem to be declining here over the past few years.

Stretford Ees was busy with walkers and rather busier with cyclists but even so blackcaps, chiffchaffs and blackbirds were well in song.

At Sale Water Park the only gulls were a couple of herring gulls. A couple of great crested grebes were out in the water while some moorhens and a few of family parties of coot were near the water's edge. Given coots' predilection for tough love it's amazing to see the size of the broods that survive. A couple of very vocal reed warblers did a good job of ignoring noisy spaniels. The first dragonfly of the year was a female common blue damselfly over the teal pool by Broad Ees Dole.

Coots, Sale Water Park

Two lapwings loafing on the island at Broad Ees Dole were my first for nearly two months. A pair of dabchicks were whinnying away in one corner of the pool while out in the open water there were a pair of tufted ducks and a goosander.

On a whim I decided to walk through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat for a change. A pheasant was calling from the area that was coppiced last Winter. A little further on a kerfuffle announced the start of a fight between a magpie and a jay that had been a bit too close to the magpies' nest. My first whitethroat of the day was singing from one of the hawthorns on the approach to the pub. Walking over the bridge I found the ring-necked parakeets that have been nesting in the telegraph pole at Jackson's Boat have had two youngsters.

I debated carrying on to Chorlton Water Park but decided against, the paths were too busy to be enjoyable. So I walked through Hardy Farm and made my way home.