Trafford Park

Scarlet macaw, Trafford Park
I suspect this might not be a Category A vagrant.
[I'm told his name is Pancho and he escaped from an aviary in Sale last Saturday]

The big local birdwatching news was a Richardson's cackling goose over on Lightshaw Flashes, about quarter of an hour's walk from Pennington Flash. I've never seen any type of cackling goose so it would have been a dead easy — and delightful — lifer. Except for the lockdown. Ah well.

A mild, dry but thoroughly gloomily overcast morning brought plenty of birds into the garden but not much in the way of crowd scenes. The blackcap was back, though it seems it isn't welcomed by the blue tits or the robins. The giant pine cones are a great hit with the goldcrests, they and the coal tits can dig out the suet left deep inside after the other birds have abandoned the search. 

• Black-headed Gull 4 overhead
• Blackcap 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 2
• Greenfinch 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 14
• Jackdaw 2
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 1
• Robin 2
• Rook 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1

There were thirty-odd black-headed gulls on the school playing field together with a trio of lesser black-backs and a second-Winter herring gull. The usual jackdaws and rooks were kicking about, joined by a couple of woodpigeons, and one of the magpies was collecting twigs for the nest. A pied wagtail flew over from one of the flat roofed school buildings, the first I've seen here for a while.

Barton Clough

I had a walk around the local patch which was a bit busier than it has been of late.

• Black-headed Gull 4 overhead
• Blackbird 3
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 4
• Chaffinch 1
• Common Gull 1 overhead
• Dunnock 3
• Feral Pigeon 81 overhead
• Goldfinch 24
• Great Tit 4
• Greenfinch 1
• House Sparrow 4
• Long-tailed Tit 2
• Magpie 16
• Redwing 5
• Robin 7
• Song Thrush 2
• Starling 5
• Woodpigeon 9
• Wren 1

Lesser black-backed gull, Trafford Park

I didn't want to go home just yet even though it had started drizzling. I decided to take a walk down the Bridgewater Canal through Trafford Park and as far as the Pomona Dock, it's been a while since I last did that walk. 

Bridgewater Canal, Trafford Park
Approaching the canal junction by Watersmeet

As usual, plenty of gulls about: mostly black-headed gulls with lesser black-backs, except on the Eurofreighter compound where the large gulls were all herring gulls. As I got to the Freightliner terminal the drizzle turned into heavy rain and a couple of hundred black-headed gulls wheeled overhead. As they moved on towards the quays I noticed an odd-looking bird heading our way. At first I though it was a cormorant until I realised all the length was at the back end, not the front. A carrion crow, perhaps, with a particularly ambitious bit of nesting material. As it neared it looked more outlandish; it turned out to be a scarlet macaw. Not a tickable vagrant but it took my mind off the cackling goose.

Cormorant and magpie, Trafford Park

As I passed the United ground I added grey wagtail to the year list. I was harbouring a remote hope of adding firecrest, too, as one had been seen yesterday in bushes on the approach to Throstle Nest Bridge but I had no luck: there was nothing smaller than a dunnock to be found today.

A bit of shopping on the way home, adding a pair of mute swans on the canal by Stretford Marina to the day list, and a desperately-needed pot of tea.