Stretford

Stretford Meadows

I had a teatime wander over Stretford Meadows. I was hoping to get a proper look at the lesser whitethroat that's been making itself known this past couple of weeks. I heard a short burst of singing earlier this week but I was hoping to do better. Most of this week's reported sightings have been on the East side of the meadows past the cricket pitch so I took a few of the paths over on that side then walked down the Eastern boundary to Kickety Brook.

It was still windy when I started the walk but halfway across the wind dropped and the warblers started singing. Plenty of chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the trees and half a dozen whitethroats seemed to be holding territories in bramble patches. Jackdaws and ring-necked parakeets were making a lot of noise about the tops of the trees. Out in the open there were small family parties of magpies and reed buntings sang from hawthorn bushes.

Three quarters of the way across, where four of the rough paths meet the metalled path, I could hear the call of a lesser whitethroat (I'm not a natural expert on this, I'd listened to a few recordings on Xeno-Canto before I came out). I wandered over to the patch the call was coming from, a typically messy mixture of brambles and great willowherb, and had a nosy round. I could only see a male dunnock and a blue tit but I decided to stick with it: more than once I've given up trying to find a lesser whitethroat only to have one pop up, pose for the camera that I'd just put back in the bag then skittle off again. Patience is a virtue and virtue is its own reward, so I'll just have to try another day.

Phyllobius pomaceus

There were a couple of unexpected treats. The first came early on, a beautiful metallic turquoise beetle on a patch of nettles. How have I spent all these years knee-deep in nettles without knowing the nettle weevil is such a handsome devil?

The second surprise was at the opposite end of the meadows, a singing linnet in one of the hawthorns on the margin. Easy to hear, hard work to find in the foliage, a site first for me.

Thence on to Stretford Ees, with a juvenile great spotted woodpecker and a jay along the way, and back through the town centre and home.