Dreich

One of those bleak dark grey days of showers and thin drizzle punctuated by rain and heavy drizzle. Ordinarily I'd either have positively stayed at home or else gone out birdwatching somewhere sheltered like Etherow Country Park, or close to public transport links like Pennington Flash or Leighton Moss, or else gone the full sod it and gone for a wild goose chase in Southport. But these aren't ordinary times. It's a bit too wet and bleak for a walk round the Salford mosses and I can't muster any enthusiasm for spending a bleak day walking the muddy velodrome tracks of Chorlton, Stretford or Urmston.

It's been quieter in the garden today, with no sign of either the goldcrests or the coal tits though there's every chance I missed them while I was being sat on by the cat.

Tomorrow's weather looks more promising. Whatever the weather I'll be off to either Pennington Flash or Etherow Country Park on Wednesday.

Home thoughts

Blue tit

The goldcrests arrived in my garden yesterday, a sign the weather's turned. They tend to tag along with the coal tits but at the moment aren't moving in any further than the sycamores on the railway embankment so at the moment I'm not sure if they're a pair or not. All the blue tits have decided to team up with one of the house sparrow families this week, following the example of the one that hitched a ride within weeks of leaving the nest this Summer. The great tits seem to be doing their own thing and don't seem settled into a routine.

It's getting harder to separate the two sparrow families as they've mixed and mingled a lot this year. Team Silver's alpha male has developed a splendid bib, not yet the rival of the patriarch that ruled the roost a few years back but getting there.

Mahonia "Charity"

The Mahonia at the bottom of the garden's in full bloom and attracting the attentions of the blue tits and great tits. I'm hoping it won't be long before the first of the Winter blackcaps and chiffchaffs come in, the flowers — or the insects on them — are a magnet for them. (While I'm wishing I'll have a firecrest, a yellow-browed warbler and a Pallas' warbler while I'm at it.)

Today's garden tally is one of the better ones lately.

• Black-headed Gull 5 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 2
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Goldcrest 2
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 13
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 8
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 4

Flixton

Sketch map of Flixton
(Including Davyhulme Millennium NR)

The farmland of Flixton is the westernmost part of the Mersery Valley complex that stretches across Greater Manchester from Stockport. The Mersey joins the Manchester Ship Canal here, the canal forming the border between Flixton and Irlam (and Trafford and Salford). Carrington is on the other side (the old Cheshire side) of the Mersey, if you walk down Flixton Road then continue down Isherwood Road you get to Carrington Moss. As well as the farmland there's a reedbed on the small nature reserve on Jack Lane, a small angler's pond (Dutton's Pond) and, South of the railway line, an area of scrub and willow woodland covering the now-disused canal lagoons.

The bird life is pretty much what you'd expect from any open land and thin woodlands on the edge of an urban area. There's at least one pair of willow tits in the area but there's no guarantee that you'll bump into them on any given visit. (Having said that, keep an ear out for them as you walk along either side of the railway embankment.) You'll usually see kestrels and buzzards; you might see a peregrine falcon  around the canal, they seem to be attracted by the pigeons on Irlam Locks and around Carrington Power Station. 

For a first visit it's probably best to start from Flixton Station, cross the road and walk down Ambleside Road to Dutton's Pool. The buses stopping on Flixton Road by Ambleside Road are the 247 between Altrincham and the Trafford Centre and the 255 from Piccadilly Gardens to Partington. Alternatively you can get off at the stops on Carrington Road and walk down Merseyview (or walk down from the station) — the path starts at the end of Merseyview where the road suddenly turns left into the farm, you turn right here into the trees.

At the bottom of Ambleside Road you reach the bit of thin woodland surrounding Dutton's Pond. All the usual suburban woodland species are around. Turn left for the path alongside Dutton's Pond. The pond usually has a few moorhen and mallards. Down at the bottom of the path the turn to the right takes you along the fields to Jack Lane; the path to the right takes you to the end of Merwell Road. Here you have the choice of walking alongside the railway to Jack Lane and on to the canal or going under the railway and having a wander by the lagoons.

If you go under the railway and carry straight on you'll get to the end of Merseyview. Turn right and follow the paths you'll do a loop back to where you started. (Turn left here and walk down and you're onto Carrington Road.) There's a bit of thin woodland which leads on to open scrub. Here and there along this stretch you can see the river before it lurches off into the distance and as the land rises you overlook the horse paddocks on the farm below. The path turns as you get to the old lagoons, you get good treetop views from here, there's no safe way down to the ground below. Approaching the railway you get back into the thin woodland.

If you go down the lane along the railway embankment you'll pass a couple of fields and then meet Jack Lane Local Nature Reserve. This is made up of two pools, each about the size of Dutton's Pond, one entirely wooded over and one with an extensive reedbed. There's a muddy path between the two that gets you onto Jack Lane. Carry on down alongside the railway embankment and you get to the end of Jack Lane. If you carry on you'll eventually get to the canal; there used to be a path from this point alongside the canal to Irlam Locks but this fell away some time ago and the remains of the path are fenced off at the locks so you can't get through. There's a considerable drop down to the canal from here so I'd suggest you confine yourself to having a look to see what's about then retrace your steps to Jack Lane. 

All the paths towards Jack Lane will lead you into the housing estate at the end of Irlam Road. When you reach Irlam Road turn left and walk down to Irlam Locks. When you get past the cattery the road's no more than a country lane alongside the canal. In Summer the telephone lines are busy with swallows and martins, in Winter they're busy with starlings. There are usually mallards and moorhens on the canal and the locks, look out for dabchicks and kingfishers on the opposite bank. The path ends at the locks by the local water treatment works. Pied wagtails and black-headed gulls feed on the filtration tanks, every so often they'll be joined by oystercatchers and it's always worth looking about to see if anything's stopping by on passage.

Where to now? 

• You could retrace your steps back to Flixton Station. 
• You could walk over the locks into Irlam, cross Cadishead Way and walk down to Fairhills Road. This takes you to Liverpool Road, passing a stretch of the old course of the River Irwell that forms an elongated pond roughly parallel to the canal. The 67 bus between Cadishead and Manchester and the 100 between Hollins Green anf the Trafford Centre then Manchester run along Liverpool Road. If you turn left and walk down half a mile you get to Irlam Station. If you're feeling energetic you could cross  the road and walk up Roscoe Road through Irlam Moss and thence to Little Woolden Moss and Chat Moss.
• You could walk back down Irlam Road, straight over the roundabout and on to Town Gate for the 15 or 256 bus, both of which go through Stretford to Manchester. Or walk on past the schools to the corner of Woodsend Road for the 247 bus.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

I've included this site here for convenience's sake. This is a small reserve made up of a few scrubby fields a couple of pools and some young woodland by the canal. It's nice for a short wander round. The entrance is by the Hulme's Ferry quay. To get there, turn off Woodsend Road onto Eddisbury Avenue  (just by the Fox pub and kitchen) and walk down to where it meets Daresbury Avenue then straight over (don't turn right) down Daresbury Avenue to the Ship Canal.

The 15 and the 245 between Altincham and the Trafford Centre stop on Woodsend Road, or you could get the 247 or 256 to the roundabout where Moorside Road meets Woodsend Road and walk up.

Platt Fields

Platt Fields pond

I was in the area so I had a late lunchtime hour's wander round Platt Fields Park. The tit flock in the trees included a nuthatch, parakeets screeched in the treetops and a hundred or so black-headed gulls loafed noisily on the pond. All the ducks were either mallards or tufties and mute swans outnumbered the Canada geese. Joining the black-headed gulls were a dozen common gulls, a lesser black-back and half a dozen first-Winter herring gulls.

Nothing spectacular, just an nice hour's walk and a gentle bit of birdwatching.

Platt Fields pond

Mersey Valley

Ring-necked parakeets, Chorlton Water Park

I thought I'd walk down from Hardy Farm to Chorlton Water Park and, light and weather permitting, carry on down the river as far as Merseybank.

I hadn't gone far down the path on Hardy Farm before bumping into the first tit flock: a dozen each of long-tailed and blue tits, a handful of great tits and a coal tit. They came in quite close, the long-tailed tits being typically fearless and typically impossible to catch with the camera (I have some nice photos of empty twigs).

Blue tit, Hardy Farm

The long-tailed tits weren't for posing for the camera

As I was trying to sort out who was who in the tit flock a couple of dozen small finches flew out from the top of the tree and twittered their way into the small trees halfway between the path and the tram lines. I'd pretty much given up on catching any redpolls this year and hadn't expected to bump into the biggest flock I've seen here. The flock moved on after a couple of minutes so I carried on down to Jackson's Boat. 

The river was a bit more civilised today, a couple of pairs of mallard dabbled under the bridge and a grey wagtail worked its way along the Cheshire bank. I passed under the tram bridge and bumped into the redpolls again, feeding on the birch trees in the scrub. I counted thirty of them in total as they bounced and flitted about with a small tit flock. I got some pretty poor record shots of the redpolls, small birds in mid distance against a bright overcast sky doesn't make it easy. They skipped off over the river and onto Sale Golf Course.

Lesser redpolls, Jackson's Boat

I walked along the river to Chorlton Water Park. There was nothing at all on the river along this stretch but plenty flying over. Mostly carrion crows, jackdaws and woodpigeons, a couple of jays were ferrying acorns about, a little egret flew high overhead and a flock of Canada geese flew low overhead and off towards Sale Water Park. Another tit flock worked its way through the trees by Chorlton Golf Course. 

I didn't linger long on Barlow Tip, it was very wet underfoot, but the usual Winter suspects all made themselves known.

Chorlton Water Park was fairly busy but not silly. Plenty of mallard and coots on the water along with a raft of a couple of hundred black-headed gulls. Gadwalls, tufted ducks and Canada geese were liberally dotted about and a family group of mute swans were cadging food from strangers near the ramp. A few common gulls floated in to join the black-headed gulls. I spent a while checking out the goldfinches feeding on ash keys high up in the trees but all were goldfinches.

Pochards, heron and cormorants
Chorlton Water Park

The little island opposite the ramp usually has a cormorant or two hanging round. Today two of them were joined by a heron and a pair of drake pochards.

A flock of twelve ring-necked parakeets were busy dismantling the flowers on the Winter cherry by the swings.

I wandered back to the river and walked along the Northern bank. A couple of grey wagtails were feeding on the water and a couple of black-headed gulls did impersonations of phalaropes picking midges off the surface. Birds were starting to go to roost in Kenworthy Woods, mostly magpies and ring-necked parakeets. A great spotted woodpecker competed with a jay and a mistlethrush to see who could make the most racket when objecting to passers-by on the path. The light was failing by the time I got to the bridge carrying Princess Parkway over the river so I called it quits, adding a drake goosander flying low over the river as the last tick of the day.

River Mersey
The bridge connects Kenworthy Woods on the left to Chorlton Water Park on the right

Local patch

Barton Clough

After the excitement of the visit the other day it was back to very quiet times again on this afternoon's stroll round my local patch. The back garden was no better: all the sparrows made an appearance, also the usual pair of collared doves, and that was it.

Black-headed Gull 9

Blackbird 3

Blue Tit 1

Carrion Crow 3

Dunnock 2

Feral Pigeon 18

Goldfinch 6

Great Tit 5

House Sparrow 1

Magpie 8

Mistle Thrush 1

Robin 4

Song Thrush 1

Flixton

Fieldfare, Dutton's Pond

I was having a morning cup of tea at home and noticed a heron leisurely flying low over the back garden. A couple of minutes later it was followed by another heron being chased off by a couple of irate black-headed gulls and a carrion crow.

I had a lunchtime stroll around Flixton South of the railway, starting off by walking down Mersey View and getting onto the path by the bend in the road.

I could hear a pair of bullfinches in the trees and struggled to find them, in the process I found a couple of goldcrests quietly going about their business. As the path entered the open scrub a small tit flock fussed about in the hawthorns, coal tits glowing salmon pink in the low sunlight and a couple of "What on earth's that?" moments were caused by fleeting sightings of blue tits sitting behind sunlit hawthorn berries. A bit further out a kestrel made a couple of unsuccessful sallies at something in the long grass.

Up on the rise I had a look over the river to see what was about on the horse paddocks on the Carrington side. Half a dozen pied wagtails chased each other round the horses' feet, a mistlethrush had a bath in a puddle and goldfinches perched on the fences. Further out, towards the pylons along Manchester Road, half a dozen woodpigeons and a magpie were spooked out of the trees by a buzzard.

Flixton lagoons
The stopping train to Liverpool in the background

As I walked towards the lagoons more pied wagtails flew over, together with a meadow pipit. Dunnocks, wrens and robins rummaged around in the mugworts and brambles. A couple of rooks flew over towards the paddocks and a raven cronked its way towards the electricity station over the river. Looking over the lagoons I could only see a few magpies in the willows.

The huge tit flock in the trees by the embankment turned out to be two large tit flocks going in opposite directions. The flock heading down the path included a treecreeper and a willow tit. The flock heading up the path included long-tailed tits and goldcrests and had a flock of goldfinches and chaffinches tagging along. A buzzard lolloped into the trees by the path, noticed me and decided to move over towards Jack Lane. A low-flying heron generated more upset amongst the blackbirds than the buzzard managed.

I popped under the railway and had a walk round Dutton's Pond. Moorhens and mallards on the pond as usual, another tit flock in the trees. A redwing popped up out of the group of blackbirds rummaging round in the damp vegetation between the willows. A little further on a lone fieldfare made a racket from the top of a tree.

Dutton's Pond

Then off to Urmston for the week's big food shop.

Orrell Water Park

Sketch map, Orrell Water Park

Orrell Water Park's one of the small, self-contained bits of wetland dotted around Wigan. It's good for a nice hour or two's pottering about and is best in Winter and Spring when the small birds can't disappear so easily into the undergrowth.

Orrell Water Park

Orrell Station has hourly train services on the Wigan to Kirkby line. Leaving the station you turn left and at the fork in the road carry on down Lodge Road and enter the park at the car park entrance. The 352 bus from Wigan to St. Helen's stops on Lodge Road. 

Goosander

The path runs round the upper and lower lakes in a figure eight. The lakes have the usual birds you'd expect in a park in Greater Manchester, in Winter you can expect goosanders, in Summer it's fairly quiet. Every so often something unusual turns up on passage.

Female ruddy shelduck
One of a pair that stayed a couple of weeks in March 2018

If you follow the path South you enter Greenslate Water Meadows where the stream draining the overflow from the lakes runs through a thin strip of wet woodland and then on into the local fields. 

Greenslate Water Meadows

Halfway along the path there's a feeding station with a screen hide which is worth checking out. In Winter there'll be siskins, the local willow tits are resident but not always easy to catch.

Siskin and chaffinch, Greenslate Water Meadows

Siskin, Greenslate Water Meadows

In more normal times you can stop by the little café in the park for an ice cream or a cup of tea.

Mersey Valley

Willow tit, Sale Water Park

Up with the dawn and after had a long look at the dawn I decided I wasn't leaving the house anytime before eight o'clock. The plan was to walk down to Sale Water Park to see if the juvenile great northern diver that dropped in late yesterday afternoon was still there.

The pigeons didn't seem to have woken up in Stretford town centre. A dozen black-headed gulls and some pied wagtails foraged round the car parks.

Stretford Ees

By the time I got to Stretford Ees the weather had cheered up considerably. Unfortunately this meant there was a lot of traffic on the footpaths but at least everyone, including most of the cyclists, made an effort at social distancing. There were a couple of small tit flocks, one by the cemetery on Hawthorn Lane and another in the thin bit of woodland by the tram lines.

The river was still in full spate and there wasn't anything on apart from a couple of broken willow branches. Overhead a carrion crow escorted a young male sparrowhawk off the premises.

I got to Sale Water Park and started to worry about how busy it was already. On the Western edge, where the diver had been reported last night, there were people throwing bread to the mallards and Canada geese and people throwing balls into the lake so their dogs could have a frolic amongst the ducks and geese. No sign of a diver, unsurprisingly. About then I got a notification on my 'phone to say the diver had flown off. Bugger.

Sale Water Park

Further out in the water there was a raft of black-headed gulls with a few common gulls and a couple of lesser black-backs. Over on the shore away from the paths a cormorant swam amongst a handful of great-crested grebes. A couple of dabchicks fished in the little reedbed by the path. It started raining.

I walked down towards Broad Ees Dole, pausing every so often to scan the water just in case the diver hadn't flown far and come back. The rain stopped as quickly as it had started and at last I spotted something hopeful: a large, low-slung silhouette in mid water opposite the boathouse. It dived and was back up almost immediately, turning so that I could see the shape of its head. A diver! Goose-sized but low in the water like a grebe, bulkier than a cormorant and with a significantly bigger head and not much of a neck and a big, straight dagger of a bill. A great northern diver! 

I wasn't getting much of a view besides its silhouette so I decided to walk round through Broad Ees Dole to get the sun to one side of us both, keeping an eye on where the bird was in between dodging cyclists and walkers. I stopped at the hide for a couple of minutes to point out a kingfisher to a particularly noisy family. There were also a few gadwall, a heron and five first-Winter dabchicks on the pool. Just after the hide the path had curled enough for me to be able to start seeing some detail of the diver, the big grey bill and extensive smutty grey on the neck confirming it as a great northern and the scaly back suggesting a first-Winter bird. I carried on walking round in the hope that when I got past the willows by the entrance to Broad Ees Dole the light should be right for my trying to get a photo. As I got to the last of the willows something large flew up off the water and away. I hoped it was one of the cormorants. It wasn't. I'd had all the views of a great northern diver I was getting today. The likelihood of the bird returning lessened as the Sunday watersports activities started to kick off so I wandered off in the direction of the café as the sun started shining again.

A prime spot for finding Willow tits

The café was busy so I decided not to get a cup of tea and went to have a look to see what was on the feeders. As luck would have it, a couple of nuthatches and a willow tit were on the bird table, though the nuthatches were more intent on chasing each other off the table than feeding. A few great tits and blue tits joined in, a jay flew over but didn't stop and a robin demonstrated that as far as it was concerned anything with an orange chest was a rival robin and the nuthatches had to beat a hasty retreat.

Blue tit, Sale Water Park

Willow tit, Sale Water Park

It was too busy to linger so I walked through Sale Ees towards Jackson's Boat. By this time the ring-necked parakeets had started to be noisy. I stopped once to check out a mixed tit flock, the rest of the time I was pausing to let cyclists and groups of people pass by (more than once other groups of people or cyclists barged through the space I'd made for the first lot to pass). By the time I had negotiated my way over the bridge at Jackson's Boat I was more than browned off with the crowds and headed over Hardy Farm for Hardy Lane and off home.

A good few hours' birding though it would have been nice to have gotten a photo of the diver. And another reminder, as if 'twere needed, of the inadequacy of our urban green spaces in the event of a lockdown.

Local patch

Barton Clough

It was a dreich November day and I really didn't want to be bothered going birdwatching (again!) so I dragged myself out for a stroll round the local patch. It turned out to be the most productive session there for months. It's nice to see the goldfinches back!

• Black-headed Gull 20
• Blackbird 6
• Blue Tit 4
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Common Gull 5
• Dunnock 3
• Feral Pigeon 76
• Goldfinch 38
• Great Tit 2
• Greenfinch 2
• House Sparrow 2
• Jackdaw 2
• Long-tailed Tit 7
• Magpie 13
• Mistle Thrush 1
• Pied Wagtail 1
• Robin 3
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1

Day off/off day

It's been one of those beautiful November days which are a joy to go for a walk in and I really couldn't be bothered to go out. In part it's the usual November slump. In part I'm struggling to be enthused when walking and birdwatching is limited to the cycleways of this bit of Greater Manchester. In part I'm chafing at the limitations imposed on us, and the hardships being imposed on local businesses, by what feels like just play-acting a national lockdown. 

We all have off days, this is one of mine. While we're waiting for me to cheer up here's some photos from Novembers past.

Bearded tit, Leighton Moss

Bullfinch, Pennington Flash

Avocets, Bowling Green Marsh

Dawlish Warren

Wigeon, Crossens

Red-legged partridges, Burscough

Velvet scoter, Dawlish

Eiders, Dawlish Warren

Pied wheatear, Meols

Waders, Meols

Redshanks, New Brighton

Merlin, Crossens

Leighton Moss

Johnny Brown's Common, South Kirkby

Sketch map: Johnny Brown's Common

Johnny Brown's Common in West Yorkshire is one of those strange places that don't look promising on the map but which attracts scarce or rare visitors. No idea why, it could be a confluence of ley lines or particularly keen-eyed locals who find the things on their patch the rest of us miss on ours. Whatever, it's worth keeping an eye out for it turning up in bird reports or having a nosy round on spec if you're in the area. Last Winter and Spring it hosted ferruginous and ring-necked ducks, this Autumn it hosted a brown shrike. On my first visit last year I saw a ferruginous duck on the lake twenty minutes after listening to an Iberian chiffchaff singing by the railway line.

The site's essentially a piece of common land just north of South Kirkby and Moorthorpe with footpaths from the main roads running alongside and under the embankments of a railway junction. The paths can be a lot muddy in wet weather and there are a couple of routes that involve steep steps.

Ferruginous duck, June 2019

Johnny Brown's Common is easy to get to on public transport. Moorthorpe is the nearest station, ten or fifteen minutes away, with regular trains from Sheffield and Leeds. Trains from Doncaster call at South Emsall Station, about a mile West of Moorthorpe Station on Barnsley Road.

On a first visit it's probably simplest to walk down Barnsley Road, turn right onto Carr Lane after the recreational ground and follow the lane down to its end, pausing to have a look to see what's on the duck pond. At the end of the lane follow the path going under the railway line and you'll enter a patch of thin woodland with a network of mostly muddy paths. Following the main path takes you under another railway line and onto the common proper, leading on to the small lake. The paths heading South lead on to Moorthorpe Lane.

An alternative route from the station is via Moorthorpe Lane (there's a stepped exit from the station directly onto Moorthorpe Lane from the Northbound platform; the Southbound platform's only accessible from Barnsley Road). Not far beyond the bridge over the railway there's a footpath that drops down and runs alongside the line towards the common. If you've got as far as Longdale Drive you've overshot. This route includes some paths with steps.

Johnny Brown's Common

Chorlton

Ring-necked parakeets
Hardy Farm

Had an afternoon stroll from Hardy Farm down to Chorlton Water Park on a very grey but remarkably mild November day.

I was amused to find the ring-necked parakeets aren't just interested in nesting in telegraph poles, two of them were investigating a security camera mast by the tram lines. Hardy Farm was business as usual otherwise: magpies, jackdaws and carrion crows flitting about, goldfinches on the last of the Michaelmas daisies and a dozen common gulls on the football pitch.

The river was running high and fast so the mallards either kept to the sides or swam sideways across the stream. They were joined near Jackson's Boat by a couple of moorhens, the water was too high for the grey wagtails to be around their usual foraging places. A tit flock foraged in the hawthorns along the path, judging by the to-ing and fro-ing I suspect there were a lot more over on the golf course.

I spent quarter of an hour looking round Barlow Tip, keeping to the metalled path and not seeing anything that wasn't a blackbird, magpie or robin. The paths into the trees were too wet and muddy (even by my standards) to be inviting.

Arriving at Chorlton Water Park I had a chat with a lady who'd been birdwatching on the lake. She'd found a drake wigeon (I bumped into it later) and was pleased about the gadwalls she'd seen. She told me there were some goldeneye on Platt Fields, there'll be more on the local lakes when the weather turns.

There were a couple of hundred black-headed gulls out on the water with a handful of common gulls. Plenty of Canada geese, mallards and coot, a dozen gadwall, a few great crested grebes and, of course, the drake wigeon. A couple of young herons dozed on the islands. I spent a while scanning a flock of fifty-odd goldfinches feeding high up on ash keys in the hopes of finding a siskin or two but it wasn't to be today.

Chorlton Water Park

Flixton

Treecreeper, Dutton's Pond

I had a wander around Flixton this afternoon. I began with a lunchtime stroll around Dutton's Pond, which was quiet with people but busy with birds.

I'd scarcely gone through the gate to Dutton's Pond when I encountered a big mixed tit flock. Great tits and coal tits were in the vanguard for a change with a dozen each of long-tailed tits and blue tits and a pair of treecreepers tagging along. There was a pair of mallards and ten moorhens on the pond itself.

Dutton's Pond

I walked down to Jack Lane by the path along the railway embankment. A small tit flock in the trees by the line included a couple of goldcrests. Woodpigeons were thin on the ground but I was glad to see any at all, all our local ones have gone missing. The magpies in the trees suddenly went very quiet and I looked up and saw a peregrine passing low overhead and off towards Carrington.

Jack Lane LNR

I took the path through the Jack Lane local nature reserve. The reedbeds and waterlogged willows looked just right for me to be finding willow tits, water rails or reed buntings so I didn't find any of them. 

I went up Jack Lane towards Towns Gate, turning off  onto Irlam Road to go down to the locks. A flock of a couple of hundred starlings whistled and squeaked from the power lines by the sewage works before flying down for afternoon tea. I'd just reached the river when the first cyclists of the day turned up: it was kicking-out time for the school kids and a few dozen of them were off home to Irlam. It was evidently knocking-off time somewhere in Irlam because half a dozen blokes in overalls came cycling back the other way. I couldn't really complain, the walk had been dead quiet up til then and on muddy country lanes cyclists are like death and taxes.

Two hundred and fifty-odd black-headed gulls dotted about in groups, some feeding on the filtration beds, some loafing about on the locks and the largest group feeding on the small field by the beds, in the company of a couple of lesser black-backs. The filtration beds were busy: besides the starlings and gulls were twenty-odd magpies and at least a dozen pied wagtails.

Upstream of the locks a dozen pairs of mallard mooched about on the water, a few moorhens fussed about and a dabchick was busy feeding near the Irlam bank of the canal. Downstream there were a few more moorhens, a cormorant and a mute swan. Fifty-odd pigeons sat about on the locks with the gulls and a dunnock made a half-hearted attempt at singing before flying off into the bushes by the lock offices.

I walked down to the station for the train home, stopping off to have a look at the bit of stranded River Irwell on Fairhills Road (not a lot, just a couple of pairs of mallard). I got to the station with more than half an hour to wait for my train and watched the pied wagtails flying over to roost on the factory roof opposite.