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