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