Stretford

A late afternoon kestrel, Barton Clough

Had an hour's wander round the local patch on a gloomy afternoon. I've neglected it a bit in my pre-lockdown gadding about. It was busier than last time I visited but still a lot quieter than usual. The nearest to a crowd scene was a small mixed tit flock worked its way along the poplars by the footpath. The male kestrel hunted over the old cornfield. Other than that it was pretty quiet. It's the first time I can remember not seeing any woodpigeons.

Incoming carrion crow, Barton Clough

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blackbird 4
• Blue Tit 4
• Carrion Crow 5
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 21
• Goldfinch 6
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 8
• Kestrel 1 male
• Long-tailed Tit 6
• Magpie 14
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 3
• Wren 3

I wandered over for a late afternoon stroll across Stretford Meadows. For a change I started the visit from the footpath running from Loretto Road. A mixed tit flock, mostly long-tailed tits, flitted about the shrubs on the motorway embankment, robins and blackbirds fussed about noisily in the brambles and a song thrush had a bath in a dirty big puddle on the path

Stretford Meadows

On the open meadow everything was settling down for the night. The magpies were rattling their way into the trees by the cricket pitch, ring-necked parakeets and lesser black-backs flew overhead to their roosts, five mallard flew over from the river and headed over towards Sale Water Park and the male kestrel settled down on its favourite perch in the big hawthorn bush on the main rise. The female's usually over on the Newcroft Road end but I didn't see her today. The blackbirds, robins and wrens were making a racket in the twilight in the bushes along Kickety Brook and I kept my ears open for tawny owls or woodcock more in hope than expectation. A buzzard lumbered in and went to roost in the big trees behind the recycling depot.

I carried on along Kickety Brook through Stretford Ees. A couple of magpies chattered, more mallards flew over and the flock of jackdaws settling in to roost in the trees by Broad Ees Dole made an almighty racket. It's difficult to judge by noise alone how many jackdaws there are — a single jackdaw flying overhead and in a mood to chunner sounds like a crowd scene — but I'd think they were in hundreds rather than dozens.

Hawthorn Lane

It was dark by the time I was walking through Turn Moss and along Hawthorn Lane. A couple of carrion crows made themselves known and some Canada geese flew over but it was mostly a time for small dogs in glow in the dark collars.