Mersey Valley

Heron, Stretford Ees

A sunny and relatively mild day with a light wind meant it was another fairly quiet day in the garden — there was plenty about but not much in the way of crowd scenes. A male blackcap come in for the crumbs left by the starlings' assault on the fat balls was a nice addition to the year list.

Blackcap playing peep-oh

I decided to take advantage of the nice weather while it was on offer, taking a walk through Stretford Meadows to Sale Water Park and back home via Chorlton.

I kept to the bridleway rather than traipsing ankle deep in mud again over Stretford Meadows. The trees by the paddock at the end of Newcroft Road was full of great tits, blue tits and goldfinches. I toyed with the idea of adding helmeted guineafowl to the year list but seeing as it in the company of a couple of chickens and a pony I decided it might not be a Category A wild bird. The buzzard was sat in the first tree by the start of the bridleway and took noisy umbrage at my appearance. The pair of kestrels were in their usual favoured places in the hawthorns by the rise.

The walk down to Kickety Brook was pretty quiet again except for a singing song thrush near the electricity pylon. As I approached the junction with the path to the canal a shape hurtled out of the trees on the other side of the brook. A woodcock, flushed by something or other, shot up and over towards the cemetery. The first time I've ever seen a woodcock in flight without having it shoot up from beneath my feet amidst great confusion and I made a right bog of it: besides the impression of a dumpy, almost owl-like shape and lots of barred tail feathers I didn't clock much.

On Stretford Ees a heron was foraging in the damp long grass where the stonechats had been yesterday — I should imagine they'd want to give it a wide berth. There were a few dog walkers on the drier open ground, I think the stonechats may have retreated to the islands by the flooded willows. Any rate, I didn't see them.

Ring-necked parakeets,
Stretford Ees

A dozen ring-necked parakeets made a hell of a racket and eventually settled into one of the trees by the tram line where they squawked for five minutes before launching into a screeching tour of the treetops.

As I crossed the bridge over the river a female great spotted woodpecker called from one of the treetops by the entrance to Sale Water Park. By now it was getting busy with people so I didn't take it personally.

Dabchick, Sale Water Park

Out on the water there was a small raft of herring gulls with a handful of lesser black-backs and there were plenty of black-headed gulls peppered about. There were twenty-odd each of coot and tufted ducks and a dozen gadwall at this end of the lake and a dozen mute swans begged for food from passers-by. Further out there were half a dozen great crested grebes and a couple of dozen Canada geese on the far bank. Walking along towards Broad Ees Dole there were five dabchicks feeding by the reeds and a kingfisher shot through the still-flooded willows by the path.

Teal, mute swans and gadwall, Broad Ees Dole

The water on Broad Ees Dole was still quite deep, with none of the islands poking above the surface, and half the open water was iced over. A couple of dozen teal whistled and preened and one group of drakes was busy displaying and head-bobbing to impress the ladies. A couple of herons lurked in the reed margins and a lone redhead goosander dozed in the centre of the main pool.

Teal, Broad Ees Dole

Back on the water park there were more of the same: a couple of dozen each of black-headed gulls, coots, tufties and gadwall, plus a handful of mallard.

Willow tit, Sale Water Park

I spent half an hour watching the feeding station by the café before the first and only willow tit of the afternoon turned up.

Sale Ees

Sale Ees was still half flooded so I took the high path out, accompanied by another calling great spotted woodpecker and a singing song thrush. Thence to Chorlton and back home with the thought that I've got out of condition this past couple of weeks and need to make more of an effort about it.