Stretford

Female stonechat, Stretford Ees

It was a quiet Sunday in the garden, the wind had died down a lot and the seed feeders were running low. Both the goldcrests came in to feed on pine cones but weren't up for posing for the camera.

I had to go to the shop for sunflower seeds so I decided to go the long way via Stretford Meadows. 

Stretford Meadows

The alder trees by Newcroft Nursery were busy with titmice and goldfinches and a single greenfinch. The bridleway was looking to get busy so I took the path through the brambles onto the meadows, being the less walked it was the least muddy and rough though it is it was considerably easier going than the main path when I got to it.

About a dozen magpies bounced around the open meadow and the usual pair of kestrels quartered the scrub around the main rise. The usual buzzard rose from the trees on the other side of the motorway and floated over the meadow and over towards Urmston. A trio of linnets was a nice departure from the usual.

The walk along Kickety Brook was quiet until I approached Hawthorn Road where I bumped into a fair sized tit flock, just blue and great tits with a few chaffinches tagging along. There wasn't a lot of cover along the brook side, last week's floods had flattened all the reeds and herbage and the mud was keeping it down.

Stretford Ees

There were still bits of remnant flooding on Stretford Ees. The pair of stonechats were still about though the female was a bit shy until she was flushed by a passing spaniel. A couple of ring-necked parakeets flew low over as I walked over to Hawthorn Lane.

Male stonechat, Stretford Ees

It was getting a bit busy with walkers and dogs so I called it quits after I cut through the cemetery and went off to the shops and thence home.

Big Garden Birdwatch

My Big Garden Birdwatch results

I was sneaky this year and timed the start of my count for the Big Garden Birdwatch with the arrival of the starlings on the sycamores on the railway embankment. Most of the local open spaces being busy with Saturday mid-morning dog walkers the starlings turned up mob-handed. They and the spadgers made up most of the numbers, with everything else either making a cameo appearance or not turning up at all. I've no idea where the great tits have been this past few days. I had hoped to be able to scrape the list off the RSPB web site but it just shows you your "top ten" in graphical form. The tally for the whole morning was:

Black-headed Gull 6 overhead

Blackbird 1

Blue Tit 2

Carrion Crow 1

Coal Tit 1

Collared Dove 3

Common Gull 1 overhead

Feral Pigeon 2

Goldfinch 2

House Sparrow 25

Jackdaw 2

Magpie 2

Robin 1

Rook 1

Starling 26

Over on the school playing field there were 66 black-headed gulls and a couple of common gulls. The only large gull was a rather dainty looking first-Winter herring gull. The magpies seem to have given up on nest building for now though they're noisily in occupation of the tree ready for when the mood takes them again.

It seems strange to get this far into January without seeing any grey geese or whooper swans, pintail, wigeon or shelduck. I keep finding myself making plans to go for a walk over the Salford mosses but while it's only ten minutes on the train it's ten minutes breaking lockdown so I have to knock it on the head. The charms of places within walking distance in miserable weather is wearing a bit thin, though the lengthening days mean that every man and his dog isn't trying to share the same space in the few hours available. Still, could be worse.

More home thoughts

Black-headed gulls and a (?first-Winter) common gull

Another mild late January day. We're a pigeon down after one of the local cats had it yesterday (my intervention was too little too late). The same cat strolled through this lunchtime which gave me and the cat I live with the opportunity to stare daggers at it. For some reason the cat I live with hasn't been out at all this month, she usually likes nosing round in the rain. Anyway, at least I know she's not bothering the bird life.

Plenty of black-headed gulls on the school field. Larger gulls were mostly heard but not seen, except for a first-Winter herring gull that loafed around for a bit. The handful of common gulls included a couple of younger birds, a first-Winter and a second-Winter I think. Young common gulls always have me scratching my head and I don't have the safety net of "probably a herring gull" that there is with larger gulls.

The dog fox decided to do a bit of early afternoon advertising, yelping awhile as he strolled down the railway line. His promenading was accompanied by seven magpies and six jackdaws, all torn between mobbing him and hanging onto his coattails in the hopes of getting scraps.

• Black-headed Gull 7 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 6
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 4
• Magpie 7
• Robin 1
• Starling 21
• Woodpigeon 3

Home thoughts

Spadgers

The onset of milder weather after the snows has made for less frenetic activity in the garden this week. Having said that, it got a bit busy when both the spadger families arrived at the same time at one point this morning. The family that is centred around the station tends to come in and exit from stage left, the family centred on the brambles and ivy on the embankment from stage right. At the moment they're both a bit more mobile, the one moving counterclockwise around the small field on Humphrey Park, the other moving clockwise, bumping into each other every so often at favoured feeding places like my garden. I suspect this way young, unpaired birds get to move between family groups and stop too much inbreeding.

• Black-headed Gull 4 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Common Gull 1 overhead
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 1
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 29
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 7
• Woodpigeon 1

Flixton

Buzzard

I'd felt infinitely better after yesterday's long walk after feeling rough first thing so I've decided this week I need to fit a few two or three hour walks into the days. An hour or so is tiring but not long enough for me to get my second wind and start getting the benefit of the exercise. With that in mind I set off for Flixton at lunchtime for a wander round.

Along Carrington Road

The early morning snow was starting to thaw as I set out, making some of the pavements a bit tricky underfoot. By the time I got to Carrington Road it was mostly clear, with odd treacherous patches in the shade. I had a nosy over Flixton Bridge, the river was high still but a lot calmer than during last week's floods. The fields by the Mile Road were sheeted with icy pools. A couple of carrion crows rummaging round in the wreckage broke off to chase a buzzard away.

Buzzard

I walked down Mersey View and joined the path onto the open land, the first of very many encounters with very deep and partially frozen mud. There were a few goldfinches and a couple of robins about as I walked up the incline to the higher ground (the usual path looked damp). Just beyond the birch scrub a buzzard sat in one of the hawthorn bushes in the company of a couple of magpies and a blackbird. As I stood and watched it a woman walking her dog approached from the opposite direction. She stopped to look at the bird. The dog, an unusually quiet Westie, stopped snuffling about in the tall grass and stared at the bird. We stayed like this for a good three or four minutes before the buzzard shrugged and flew off to dig for worms in the horse paddock just over the river.

By Coniston Road

I walked around the ridge by the old lagoons, the willows being thick with magpies, and down by the railway. The path down was a tad icy and as it's been worn down to about ankle depth to the grass either side it had more than a passing resemblance to a bobsleigh run. Halfway down I abandoned it and walked sideways down the grassy slope. Down at the bottom the birches and alders were sitting in a good foot of water. They were thick with goldfinches and a fair-sized mixed tit flock, including a lone willow tit. skittered about the middle branches.

Kingfisher

The approach to the underpass over to Dutton's Pond involved hopping along a series of hedge trimmings kindly provided by some kind soul who'd laid them across the deep mud. Once through and on the other side of the railway line I bumped into another mixed tit flock which was predominantly great and coal tits. An electric bubbling device was doing a grand job of keeping half of Dutton's Pond free of ice, much appreciated by small bunches of mallard and moorhen. And also a kingfisher which hunted from the fence posts in the reeds.

The path from Dutton's Pond to Jack Lane

I walked down towards Jack Lane but didn't go down the path through the reserve, the main footpaths were quite muddy enough. One of the paddock fields was particularly busy with birds: a couple of fieldfares caught my eye and scanning round from them I spotted a dozen redwings and thirty-odd starlings. Singles of pied wagtail and meadow pipit flew over, I was surprised not to see more. Just before I reached Jack Lane the reason for the state of the path became apparent: I had to perch myself on the barbed wire fence to let a muck-spreading tractor past.

The hedgerows on Jack Lane were busy with spadgers, goldfinches and chaffinches. I walked down the end into Town's Gate and wandered off home.

Trafford Park

Tenax Circle, Trafford Park

I was feeling the effects of cabin fever, both mentally and physically, so decided on a Sunday afternoon walk. It was a dull, cold but dry afternoon so I decided to avoid all the local parks and green places and had a walk through the industrial estates of Trafford Park. I'd hoped to cap it with a nosy round Trafford Ecology Park but that's only open Monday to Friday 9:00am to 4:00pm.

There were no great surprises along the way: plenty of magpies, pigeons, carrion crows and woodpigeons, occasional blackbirds, robins and wrens. There was a constant stream of gulls overhead, equal numbers of black-headed gulls and herring gulls, a few common gulls and a smattering of lesser black-backs, most of which were first or second Winter birds. A lone great black-back flew overhead as I approached Trafford Park Road.

I moved on to Wharfside where the docks were thick with gulls: a hundred or more black-headed gulls, a raft of forty-odd herring gulls, a similar number of lesser black-backs and over towards the Ontario Basin a mixed crowd of gulls mostly hidden by a herd of mute swans. 

I was walking through Stretford town centre when I saw the first and only cormorant of the day.

Home

Goldcrest

The heavy snow of the morning was succeeded by a dry, sunny afternoon and by the end of the day half the snow had disappeared. The spadgers set up camp all day though even they had to retreat when forty-two starlings came in and devastated the day balls. Once they'd gone I refilled the feeders and went back inside to see what else turned up (mind you, the blue tits and robins didn't even bother waiting until I'd finished filling the sunflower feeders).

A more usual photo of a goldcrest

The pair of coal tits came in and posed winsomely in the rowan tree, only splitting up and moving off as my camera got them into focus. A pair of goldcrests also gave me plenty of opportunity to get photos of where they had been as they flitted round the base of one of the feeders where the starlings had given a pine cone a hard pecking.

Collared dove

The usual pairs of collared dove and great tit were latecomers to the party today, neither being seen before lunchtime. The long-tailed tits didn't turn up until sundown when they came in, spent a good five minutes topping up from the fat feeders then bounced off to roost.

The school playing field was quiet and frozen, just a handful of black-headed gulls and a common gull loafed on the roof of one of the school buildings. There were plenty more gulls on the field by the station which is a wee bit on the damp side.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 4
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1 2 overhead
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 3
• Common Gull 1 2 overhead
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 2
• Herring Gull 1 2 overhead
• House Sparrow 26
• Jackdaw 6
• Magpie 3
• Robin 2
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 44
• Woodpigeon 2

Hodbarrow

Sketch map: Hodbarrow

Hodbarrow is an RSPB reserve in the top left-hand corner of Morecambe Bay next to the Duddon Estuary, made up of a coastal lagoon and some rolling seaside grasslands by the old ironworks. The scenery by itself makes it a nice walk but the main attraction in Summer is the tern colony nesting in the shingles by the lighthouse, including common, Sandwich and little terns.

Hodbarrow, looking inland from the lighthouse over the shingle beach

Hodbarrow's just over a mile outside Millom. Millom Station's on the Barrow to Carlisle line with trains generally every two hours (the schedule can be a bit irregular and seems to change with every new season's timetable so it's a good idea to check times beforehand). Leaving the station, head South down St. George's Road and just follow the road down and you'll get to the car park entrance to Hodbarrow. 

Hodbarrow, looking over the lagoon towards the old ironworks

There's a circular path that takes you around the lagoon through the grasslands, past the lighthouse and on to the marina by the caravan park on the North side. There are a few paths and by-ways you can explore around the ironworks, well worth a nosy round for butterflies and orchids. As you walk along the main path you get views of the lagoon and the chance to get your eye in with the waterfowl and check out the margins for common sandpipers. 

Sandwich tern

You'll start to see gulls and terns coming in as you approach the barrier that makes the seaward margin of the lagoon. There's a hide near the lighthouse which gives you an excellent view of the shingle beach where the terns nest. The most obvious are the blocks of Sandwich terns, with common terns scattered about more lightly. If they're settled and not flying about the little terns are much harder to spot, it's unnerving just how easily they merge into the white shingles. Have a look out over the water for eiders and red-breasted mergansers amongst the Canada geese and tufties. 

Little tern

Eiders

While you're here, make sure to have a scan out over the estuary to see what's about and the views over to Sandscale are good on a fine day.

Continuing down the path towards the marina you'll see more gulls. Herring gulls and lesser black-backs nest on the wall jutting out into the lagoon and there may be a family of great black-backs making everyone feel nervous.

Millom from Hodbarrow

Once you've reached the marina you can carry on clockwise, going through the holiday village until you reach the road back into Millom. Alternatively you can turn left then take the next right and go into Millom by Haverigg Road, over the railway and turn right and down onto the main road down to the station.

If you can make the train timetables work for you Hodbarrow's an excellent Midsummer day out. (I've not yet managed to get the Winter timetable to work for me and the pandemic restrictions have stopped me giving it another go. It should be good for ducks and waders so it's firmly on my wish list.)

Local patch

Jay, Lostock Park

The heavy rain of the last few days was replaced by a sunny day and, despite a bitingly cold wind, it was mild enough to melt most of last night's heavy snow. The sparrows came mob-handed into the garden and stayed most of the day. Both the pigeons came in but didn't linger long, nor did the woodpigeon: they were all a bit spooked by one of the neighbourhood cats walking through. The gulls were back, with a particularly noisy bunch feeding on the little dog-walkers' field on the other side of the railway line. 

Spadgers. Silver team's alpha male on the left

• Black-headed Gull 7 overhead
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1 overhead
• Coal Tit 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 2
• Herring Gull 2 overhead
• House Sparrow 23
• Long-tailed Tit 3
• Magpie 1
• Starling 8
• Woodpigeon 1

Over on the school playing field all the regular black-headed gulls were back, together with seventeen jackdaws, but no large gulls.

Robin, Lostock Park

I didn't really want to go for a walk so I forced myself to get my boots on. The Mersey Valley was still on red flood alert up to where Kickety Brook meets Stretford Meadows so I stuck to the local patch. 

Great tit, Barton Clough

The footpath down from Old Hall Road was (unsurprisingly!) fearfully muddy and very quiet of birds. Wandering around the old cornfield was a mixed bag: a big flock of pigeons flew to-and-fro overhead and a dozen goldfinches fed in the trees behind the blinds workshop but there wasn't much feeding in the scrub bar a couple of dunnocks and a robin. I disturbed a rabbit on the old railway bed and this alerted a pair of great tits to my presence, they flew into the hazel bushes to let me know I wasn't welcome. A few black-headed gulls and carrion crows flew overhead, the gulls heading roughly towards Salford Quays and the crows flitting about between the flyover and the poplars in the park. A large black bird approaching overhead turned out to be a raven, flying North because it's the afternoon of course.

Redwing, Lostock Park

Walking back through the park I bumped into a flock of redwings feeding on the wet grass and a small flock of goldfinches feeding on alder cones. A couple of jays silently foraged for cached acorns in the leaf litter. A few blackbirds and a couple of song thrushes rummaged round in the leaf litter under the shrubs near the corner of the park. Out on the football field a couple of crows had a bath in the centre circle and four mistlethrushes were feeding on the outfield, which was marginally drier.

Blackbird, Lostock Park

• Black-headed Gull 9 overhead
• Blackbird 5
• Blue Tit 5
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chaffinch 1
• Common Gull 2 overhead
• Dunnock 3
• Feral Pigeon 63 overhead
• Goldfinch 24
• Great Tit 6
• Jay 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 19
• Mistle Thrush 4
• Raven 1 overhead
• Redwing 16
• Robin 9
• Song Thrush 2
• Starling 10
• Woodpigeon 1
• Wren 2

Wet Wednesday

Rainy day long-tailed tit

Of course, the day one of the goldcrests decides to feed ten feet away from the living room window there's a sheet of water running down the glass making it impossible to get any photos. The rain had eased a little (but only a little) when the long-tailed tits came in so I gave it a try, with not much success.

Through a wet living room window

• Black-headed Gull 3 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Feral Pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 3
• House Sparrow 21
• Long-tailed Tit 8
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 6
• Woodpigeon 1

I had thought that the rain of the past couple of days would have had hordes of gulls on the school playing field stamping for worms but there wasn't a single one on there, just a couple of carrion crows looking very gloomy. The floodgates at Sale Water Park have had to be opened today, I wonder if all the gulls have floated down there to see what's been washed up on the fields.

Home again

Pigeon

Pretty much business as usual in the garden. The weather's been a bit quieter so the spadgers have been feeding more widely afield today so haven't been in mob-handed.

A new addition to the usual cast is one of the pair of pigeons that generally feed on the school field near the netball court. I don't often get pigeons in the garden, there really aren't that many round here and they stick to the main road as a rule — a flock of eight to a dozen that spend a lot of their time on the roof of the sheltered housing opposite the shops and another flock of about sixteen that sits on the roof next door to the chapel of rest. I wouldn't want a huge flock of pigeons in the garden (they make woodpigeons look houseproud) but having one or two in is good to see.

• Black-headed Gull 3 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 11
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1

For reasons which escape me (the stormy weather's coming later this week) there was a flock of sixteen herring gulls (including ten first-Winters and a third-Winter) clamouring round the rooftops of the school this lunchtime. None of them landed on the ground to feed or loaf about so I've no idea what they were about.

• Black-headed Gull 34
• Common Gull 2
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Herring Gull 18
• Jackdaw 16
• Rook 4

Home

House sparrow, a first-Winter cock

The foxes had another busy night a-courting so there was no great surprise to find nearly all the local jackdaws sitting in the sycamore trees on the railway embankment to see if there was any pickings as the dog fox trotted down the line back to its lair.

I've had to refill the sunflower seed feeders again today, the sparrows, titmice and goldfinches have been giving them a lot of hammer. It took a while but I managed to establish that two goldcrests were visiting the garden, a male and a female. The male is the one I generally see coming into the garden, I've spotted the female on the sycamores a few times in the past, today she was feeding on the cherry tree.

• Black-headed Gull 8 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 7
• Great Tit 2
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 15
• Long-tailed Tit 6
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 8
• Woodpigeon 1

Over on the school field the large gulls were a first-Winter lesser black-back and ten herring gulls: one adult, five first-Winters, two second-Winters and two third-Winter birds.

Trafford Centre

Goldcrest

After a night of listening to lustful foxes (I was awake anyway) I opened the bedroom curtains to find a goldcrest feeding on the pine cone near the living room window. Which is a nice way to start the day. Other than that it was pretty much business as usual in the garden again. Another refill of the sunflower seed feeders brought the long-tailed tits in from their foraging in the sycamore trees.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 20
• Jackdaw 1
• Long-tailed Tit 7
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 14
• Woodpigeon 2

Goldcrest, showing the gold this time

Spadger.
This is the second-in-command on the silver team.

It was a dry day (insofar as it wasn't raining and I kept off the grass) so I decided to go for a walk towards the Trafford Centre. Stretford Ees is slightly further away but I generally head that way, via Stretford Meadows, because it doesn't seem such a long walk. I think the walk to the Trafford Centre feels longer because it's mostly long straight lines.

I walked under the motorway subway and down to Kingsway Park. This is a long stretch of grass with a few trees peppered in it; you can tell the course of the old Longford Brook by the public parks running the length where the ground's too boggy to build on. This was more than adequately illustrated today by the forty-odd black-headed gulls skating on the frozen pond that is the football pitch.

I passed the retail park and back under the motorway at the Trafford Centre junction then took the road that loops around Beyond and Chill Factor^e before rejoining Trafford Way. Three bullfinches — two females and a male — were feeding in the brambles by the car park and a male peregrine was perched on the roof of Beyond. By the way it was mantling it obviously had caught something, by the size it was more likely a thrush or blackbird rather than a pigeon.

• Black-headed Gull 30 1 overhead
• Blue Tit 1
• Bullfinch 3
• Carrion Crow 5
• Dunnock 1
• Great Tit 1
• Jackdaw 5
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 10
• Peregrine 1
• Pied Wagtail 6
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 2

I went home from the Trafford Centre via Lostock Park. The afternoon was getting on so most of the birds were settling down for the night.

• Black-headed Gull 9 overhead
• Blackbird 8
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Common Gull 1 overhead
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 3
• Greenfinch 1
• House Sparrow 4
• Magpie 8
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 6
• Wren 1

Stretford

The view from the living room window

Another cold, damp day in paradise. Today the garden had a visitation from thirty starlings and three goldfinches came in to the seed feeders, the largest number for this Winter, which would have unthinkably low even ten years ago. The pair of coal tits were back in together again, I felt a bit smug at being able to identify the male before the female popped out of the bushes. A male goldcrest came in just after lunchtime and spent a while being dwarfed by the giant pine cone it was feeding from. This gave me the opportunity for this year's first assays for the album of photos of where a warbler was a moment ago.

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 3
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 20
• Jackdaw 1
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 30

The magpies are nest-building in the same tree they used last year. The large gulls on the school field were all herring gulls. No adults this time, and just the one first-Winter bird with a big fourth-Winter and three third-Winter birds. 

As I waited for the train at Humphrey Park (I was nipping to the shops) I listened to a couple of robins having a singing duel. One to be careful of: the robin on the Manchester platform has added a couple of willow warbler cadences to its song.

Home

The female bullfinch found the nyger seedheads

A pair of bullfinches visited the garden today in the rain. I must say, given the huge amount of sunflower hearts kicking around out there it was a bit off of them to spend ten minutes eating buds off the blackcurrant bushes. Luckily we can spare a few buds: the bushes are both as tough as old boots and very productive (I'm still working my way through the last three pounds of currants in the freezer).

Male bullfinch abusing the hospitality of the garden

Both of the coal tits came in at the same time this morning which gave me a rare opportunity to see the differences between them. The male's underparts are flushed with a rich peach orange whereas the female's are a warm straw brown. When they're sat side-by-side on a branch the difference is obvious but when they're feeding on their own it's a very subtle difference and an easy one to miss if the light's not on your side.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Bullfinch 2 pair
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 2 pair
• Collared Dove 1
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 2 pair
• House Sparrow 14
• Jackdaw 1
• Magpie 1
• Robin 2
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1

Barton Clough

An hour's wander round the local patch in the pouring rain was predictably quiet.

• Black-headed Gull 1
• Blackbird 7
• Blue Tit 2
• Bullfinch 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Common Gull 3
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 8
• Fieldfare 3
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 1
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 8
• Magpie 14
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 1
• Starling 11
• Woodpigeon 13

Mersey Valley

Goosander, Sale Water Park

The weather forecast promised it was going to be a bleak morning turning nasty and wet by lunchtime so I judged it should be safe to go for a walk round Sale Water Park and nudge the year list along a bit.

Stretford Meadows

Even though it was lunchtime Stretford Meadows was fairly quiet, just a few people walking along the bridleway path and I had the open meadow to myself and the birds. As usual the magpies and carrion crows were most obviously kicking about with the blackbirds and woodpigeons quietly going about their business. 

I'd hoped to see the first kestrel of the year but was having no luck until I heard a kerfuffle over in the hawthorns beyond the rise. The pair of kestrels had taken objection to a buzzard which had landed for a bit of worm-hunting. Once they'd put it to flight a pair of crows escorted it over the motorway and off towards Ashton-on-Mersey.

Stretford Meadows' pair of kestrels after they saw off the buzzard
(Male in the left)

A family party of long-tailed tits fussing about the base of one of the electricity pylons was a hint of a mixed tit flock that never materialised until I'd passed under Chester Road where the hawthorn hedge was thick with great tits and blue tits. One of the taller hawthorns sounded like it was full of goldfinches, in fact it was full of chaffinches and blue tits and just three particularly vocal goldfinches.

Stonechat in the gloom of Stretford Ees

The rain eased as I arrived at Stretford Ees but it was still very gloomy. It took a while to spot the pair of stonechats. They shadowed me along the path awhile, all the time keeping their distance just in case I was a dog in disguise.

Sale Water Park was busier, unsurprisingly, but not silly so. There was a small raft of black-headed and common gulls on the water and a party of five dabchicks were feeding by the reeds. Broad Ees Dole was frozen over so the teal were confined to feeding among the drowned tree roots by the path. A small group of herring gulls and lesser black-backs loitered by the slipway with the Canada geese. There were a lot more gadwall than mallard, surprisingly enough, and half a dozen goosanders fed at the Cow Lane end of the lake.

I spent five minutes watching the feeders by the café and added willow tit to the year list. I walked on through Sale Ees as the light started to fail. The parakeets were going to roost as I passed Jackson's Boat and the first eighty-odd jackdaws were settling in on Hardy Farm. On my way home I spotted an empty bus going my way and took it, it would have been daft not to.

Kickety Brook passing under the tram bridge and the Bridgewater Canal aquaduct.

Home again

Male bullfinch

A milder, wetter day led to the birds being a bit more chilled at the feeders. The spadgers didn't drop anchor in the garden so it was harder to be sure how many visited in total (there's only a few of the males who are easily individually identifiable). A male bullfinch hung around for an hour eating the buds off the rambling rose stems and saving me a bit of pruning next month. The long-tailed tits popped in again, accompanied by a goldcrest that confined itself to gleaning from the ivy in the sycamores.

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Bullfinch 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Goldcrest 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 12
• Long-tailed Tit 5
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 6
• Woodpigeon 1

Male bullfich

Over on the school playing field the usual black-headed gulls were joined by a few lesser black-backs and a small crowd of herring gulls including five first-Winters, one showing its first few grey feathers on its scapulars.

Home

Collared doves

It's been a bright sunny Winter's day, as promised in yesterday's weather forecasts. I'd wondered about going for a proper walk to give the joints a bit of a workout but in the end I really couldn't be bothered.

In case you were wondering how big the fatty pine cones are, here's a starling for scale

Guess who bit whom
House sparrow and great tit

One of the lads

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 16
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 11
• Woodpigeon 2

The ground on the school playing field is evidently a bit softer than it was yesterday, all the usual black-headed gulls are back. Today's collection of large gulls included an adult lesser black-back and five herring gulls — an adult, two second-Winter birds and two first-Winters. One of the second-Winter birds got my hopes up when it walked out from behind two of the other birds as the first thing I saw of it was a pale tip to the bill; once it was out in the open it was obviously a herring gull that was a little advanced in the moulting of its bill sheaths.