Mersey Valley

Blackcap

Another overnight smattering of snow barely survived lunchtime save for odd shady corners. The spadgers came in mob-handed quite late in the morning, which gave the blackcap and the great tits an opportunity for their turns on the fat feeders. A handful of dried mealworms thrown over the top of a couple of planters kept the song thrush and the pair of blackbirds happy for a while.

Song thrush

Blackcap

House sparrows

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blackcap 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Common Gull 1
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 23
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 9
• Woodpigeon 2

Over on the school playing field there was a big white island of thirty-odd black-headed gulls with a handful each of herring gulls and common gulls.

Chorlton Water Park

I decided on a long walk today so I went down through Chorlton to Chorlton Water Park and walked back along the river then through Chorlton Ees and Stretford Ees then home. It was mostly a bright sunny day with a cold wind that brought in short-lived snow flurries and chilly cloud cover. The paths were fairly busy but not uncomfortably so and everyone seemed to be trying to respect other people's space, which was good because that hasn't always been the case here.

Black-headed gull, Chorlton Water Park

There was plenty of open water on Chorlton Water Park. A couple of pairs of goosander and a great crested grebe accompanied the coots and Canada geese by the landing ramp. I looked in vain for pochard over by the island, there were just more Canada geese and a cormorant today. Out on the water there were plenty of coots and tufted ducks and half a dozen mute swans. I was struck by how few mallard there were (it turns out they were all loafing on the big island over at the Barlow Tip end of the lake). There were fifty or more black-headed gulls on the water but only a handful of common gulls and just the two herring gulls. I'd almost finished walking round the lake when I found the one and only gadwall of the day.

Tufted duck and great crested grebe, Chorlton Water Park

Drake goodander, Chorlton Water Park

Drake tufted duck, Chorlton Water Park

The paths through Barlow Tip didn't look any too promising so I just spent five minutes scanning round the margins. A few woodpigeons and carrion crows were obvious enough, it took a couple of strokes of luck to find the small flock of redwings in the birch trees.

River Mersey, Chorlton

The river was running fast and high but considerably lower than during the flooding: in places the banks had been scoured three or four feet above the water line. No sign of grey wagtails — their usual hunting grounds were under a foot of water — but there were plenty of mallard hugging the riverbanks. A male bullfinch fed on hawthorn buds in the hedgerow by the path and robins sang at regular intervals. Carrion crows, magpies and jackdaws noisily to-ed and fro-ed overhead and a couple of cormorants flew purposely towards  Chorlton Water Park.

Unusually Jackson's Boat was the only place I didn't hear or see ring-necked parakeets on this afternoon's walk from the water park. 

Parts of Chorlton Ees were still underwater

I decided not to walk down the river towards the main paths into Chorlton Ees, preferring instead to take one of the middling rough paths straight into the trees to see what small birds were about. There weren't many that weren't robins, there were odd ones and twos of great tit, blue tit or long-tailed tit but nothing remotely like a family group or mixed tit flock. I was watching a pair of long-tailed tits and wondering where the rest were when I was joined by a goldcrest which checked to make sure I wasn't a problem then quietly went about its business.

Ring-necked parakeet, Ivy Green

I crossed over Chorlton Brook into Ivy Green and walked along the brook towards the river. Halfway down a pair of blue tits started chirring at me from a willow tree and as I was looking at them I noticed a few more flitting about high up in the trees. A pair of great tits skittered through and a handful of redwings quietly moved through the trees in the background. A couple of blackbirds flew in and fed on the ground ahead and a pair of robins kept popping up in the corner of my eye. I was watching one of them bobbing up and down along a tree root when a movement just above it led to my adding treecreeper to the year list. As I approached the bridge over the bottom of the brook a couple of herons made a noisy palaver of flying into the heronry over on Chorlton Ees.

Stretford Ees

The sun was low when I got to Stretford Ees. I had no luck finding the pair of stonechats that were there last week though a female kestrel scared up a trio of meadow pipits. 

Female kestrel, Stretford Ees

And then back home, adding a pied wagtail to the day's tally as I walked through the car park at Stretford Mall.