Mersey valley

Heron, Sale Ees

One of the young magpies has come to an untimely end, I found it in the back garden this morning. I'm not sure of the culprit, it could be one of the local cats, or even the one that lives with me. I like cats but not the carnage they wreak amongst our bird life. My conscience is eased a little by the knowledge that for years before she staged the road accident that got her into my house she was living ferally and leaving bits of woodpigeon and sparrow in gardens up and down the road. These days she's overfed and sleeping indoors most of the time but I suspect that a daft young magpie being stupid would be a tempting offer to any cat that was still breathing let alone some of the younger, friskier hooligans in the neighbourhood.

Had a wander down from Chorlton to Sale Water Park then home via Stretford Meadows this afternoon. The original plan had been to go out for a wander across Chat Moss but there was a fire yesterday by the path I would have been using and it would be a good idea to give it a few cool, damp days before giving it a go.

I set off from Hardy Farm, which was mostly quiet but the low cloud had brought the swifts, swallows and house martins down to feed over the football pitches over towards Ivy Green. Strangely, I didn't see any ring-necked parakeets here or at Jackson's Boat. The usual blackcaps, whitethroats and chiffchaffs were singing and the first willow warblers for what seems like ages flitted about in the ash trees. A garden warbler sand lustily in the car park at Jackson's Boat.

Walking through Sale Ees was accompanied by song thrushes, robins, blackbirds and whitethroats. A couple of singing chiffchaffs and a reed bunting struggled to make themselves heard. Family parties of great tits and long-tailed tits foraged along the paths and a wren carrying what looked like its own body weight in insects stopped to let me know it wasn't happy to see me.

Mute swan family

Sale Water Park was busier with people but quieter than it has been and nothing like as uncomfortable as Chorlton Water Park the other day. The only downside was a swimming competition going on in the lake. Half a dozen black-headed gulls picked insects off the water at one end of the lake and four lesser black-backs loafed in the middle while the contestants swam round them. The coot families kept well into the reeds and the great crested grebe family stuck firmly to the opposing bank. A family of mute swans fed close to the path, coming closer every so often in the hopes that passers-by may have some food on them.

At Broad Ees Dole one of the islands was littered with mallards, the other had a few mallards and a couple of gawky juvenile herons. A pair of dabchicks were unusually quiet and there was the first pair of gadwall I've seen since March.

Broad Ees Dole

There was a reassuringly large flock of swifts over the river as I crossed back over into Stretford Ees. The stretch alongside the tram line was unusually quiet. A small flock of house sparrows were feeding on the tall grasses in the meadow. Passing under the bridges the trees and bushes were busier with lots of house sparrows on foraging forays and small family parties of blue tits and long-tailed tits. Musical accompaniment came from blackcaps, chiffchaffs, song thrushes and wrens. The intriguingly nondescript bird doing darting fly-catching sallies from the depths of the trees by Kickety Brook turned out to be a bald robin partway through its post-breeding moult.

It started to rain as I arrived at Stretford Meadows. Half a dozen whitethroats were singing from hawthorn bushes and chiffchaffs and song thrushes sang from the trees on the perimeter. I had a little bit more luck with the lesser whitethroats than I've managed so far: a quick glimpse of one by the path as it jumped for cover over a bramble patch and one singing deep in another bramble patch by the cricket pitch.