Local patch

Buzzard, Barton Clough

Another sunny Sunday so I decided to take my new boots for a walk around the local patch so we can start to get the hang of each other.

The park was phenomenally quiet, both of birds and people. Just half a dozen starlings and three wrens having a singing contest over the bit of bramble by the trees on the North boundary.

Buzzard, Barton Clough

As I walked onto the old cornfield I saw two buzzards flying over Trafford Park towards the canal. As I turned into the old rail line a third buzzard rose from the copse behind the school, spiralled upwards on the thermals and floated off towards the Trafford Centre. And that was pretty much it, really.

Rosebay willowherb, Barton Clough

• Black-headed Gull 3
• Blackbird 2
• Buzzard 3
• Carrion Crow 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 28
• Goldfinch 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 2
• Magpie 8
• Pied Wagtail 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 7
• Wren 3

I had something to do in Altrincham so I went over to the Trafford Centre for the 247 bus which goes round the houses through Davyhulme and Flixton, through Carrington, in a big circle round Partington then on to Broadheath and Altrincham through the farmland and mosses skirting Warburton and Carrington Moss. Lots of starlings, woodpigeons and pigeons in the urban areas, a big flock of rooks by Sinderland Brook and three whooper swans a field away off Sunderland Road. Guess it might be Autumn.