Local patch

Juvenile blue tit

Hanging around at home waiting for the gas to be cut off and connected to the new gas main they've been working on this past week, which had been originally scheduled for last Friday. It's an odd thing but if I have a lazy day on my own accord I can settle down to reading or a bit of gardening or whatever no problem, if I have one imposed on me I just can't settle, A couple of dozen spadgers were a welcome distraction. The new youngsters have learned how to use the sunflower feeders, luckily they're still arriving mob-handed so the goldfinches and titmice get a chance between times. At one point there was a sudden alarm call from a blackbird, all the birds disappeared into the rambling roses and the squirrel that had been sitting on the fence chewing rose hips flattened itself down and made like a piece of wood. Look though I may for the sparrowhawk that must have triggered the alarm I couldn't spot it.

Juvenile house sparrow

Late lunchtime I found out that the work had been postponed again until tomorrow, which is tiresome but almost certainly nobody's fault. It felt too late to go out for the day and it was to hot and sticky to make a walk around the Mersey Valley feel like fun so I decided I'd have a wander for an hour or so round my local patch.

The park was even quieter than last week (there weren't even that many people). The highlight was a juvenile blackcap that flew into one of the elder bushes by the footpath into the old cornfield. It was even quieter on the field: I've never seen or heard so few goldfinches there as I did today. Even the usual traffic of pigeons flying over into Trafford Park was a mere dribble.

I'd got to the end of the path and was feeling a bit deflated when I heard a great spotted woodpecker calling. I struggled to find it and was starting to wonder if I'd been misidentifying the call all these years and looking for some mysterious small brown job in the bramble patches when there was a commotion of magpies and a buzzard flew out of the copse behind the school. After watching the buzzard on its way I turned back to the magpies and saw that there, about six feet below them on the tree trunk, was a juvenile woodpecker. It was nice to see some breeding success here, I see one or other of the adults about once a month but I've never seen any evidence of their doing any more than just passing by. The reason why I had had so much trouble finding it was that except for the few moments as it passed from tree to tree it spent all its time working its way up the far side of the trunk, possibly because it felt more comfortable with a bit of tree cover behind its back.

There was a great spotted woodpecker there a moment ago

• Blackbird 5
• Blackcap 1 juvenile
• Buzzard 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chiffchaff 1
• Feral Pigeon 3
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 juvenile
• House Sparrow 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 overhead
• Magpie 3
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 11
• Wren 1

Blackberries and golden rod