Stretford

Male stonechat, Stretford Ees

The heavy weather last night seems to have brought a lot of herring gulls in. Ten of them joined the black-headed gulls on the school playing field opposite this morning. The magpies are still poking sticks into their new nest; one of the carrion crows called in to see if it was worth pinching yet and got a noisy reception.

The Met Office app promised heavy pourdowns and there was a yellow wind warning after Christmas dinners so I decided I'd take advantage of a nice sunny Sunday to have a walk. The plan was to wander down to Stretford Meadows to see what was about, move on to Stretford Ees and then either finish up on Sale Water Park or Chorlton Ees, or give up and call it quits, depending on how busy the paths were.

Walking down from Newcroft Road I decided not to take the first path onto the meadow.

The path I didn't take

A small tit flock worked its way through the trees by the stable paddocks and there was a lot of twittering goldfinches in the tops of the alders. I was hoping one of the ravens might pass overhead but it was all carrion crows, including a few pairs making display flights over the treetops.

The path I did take

I took the first opportunity to dodge the crowds on the path and took one of the less muddy paths onto the meadow which was only ankle-deep in fairly clear water. By the end of half an hour's wander I wondered if it had been worth it: aside from the crows and the usual magpies the only birds on the open meadow were a wren and a meadow pipit. I skirted round the central rise; walking uphill in deep mud is hard work, making the downhill journey while keeping any sort of dignity is just asking for trouble.

Stretford Meadows

Stretford Meadows

Between the motorway and the track bikes charging up and down the path there wasn't much hope of hearing or seeing much birdlife in the trees by Kickety Brook and the paths got even busier as I approached the canal aquaduct.

I decided not to head off towards Sale Water Park or Chorlton: if Stretford was this busy I didn't fancy my chances of a quiet walk over that way. I'd have a wander round Stretford Ees then call it quits.

I'd taken the little path that leads out into the middle of the field and was rewarded by very nice views of the pair of stonechats that have taken Winter residence here.

Female stonechat, Stretford Ees

The pool at the end of Kickety Brook was unusually quiet, just a robin and no waterbirds. The path here was atrocious and my joining the riverside path descended into farce as I quickly got to the top of the rise and more quickly slid back down the way I came. Second time lucky, with just a ginormous muddy patch where my knee used to be, and I got onto the path and was confronted by a family walking seven abreast. I negotiated my way past them and ducked down the embankment onto Turn Moss.

With so many people and dogs about there wasn't much birdlife on the fields, just a couple of carrion crows. There were a few jackdaws and parakeets flying overhead making enough noise for large flocks of most any other types of bird. All the gulls had congregated on the grammar school playing field: fifty or sixty black-headed gulls with a few lesser black-backs and common gulls and a huge brute of a herring gull. Judging by the size of the bird and its huge beak I wondered if it might be one of the nominate argentatus subspecies from Scandinavia but though there was plenty of white on the tips of its primaries the grey didn't look particularly dark, not much more so than the black-headed gulls. It was probably just an unusually big male argenteus herring gull.

A huge brute of a herring gull amongst black-headed gulls, lesser black-backs and common gulls, Stretford Grammar School