Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck

Another nice day so I bobbed over to Etherow Country Park to get mandarin duck onto the year list. My heart sank when I arrived and saw the crowded car park but I needn't have worried, I wasn't long down the path before I lost the crowds. What was nice was that any time anyone stopped for a chat they always parted with the phrase: "Take care."

It took a while to find any mandarin ducks, they were nearly all on the river, loafing and preening in pairs. I spent a while taking photos, a couple of couples stopped to have a look to see what the attraction was and were delighted by seeing these ducks for the first time.

Mandarin duck

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Mandarin ducks

I looked in vain for any dippers or grey wagtails on the river. The one grey wagtail of the day flew overhead as I was standing by the Weir.

Keg Wood

Keg Wood was quiet of people but noisy with birds. Very noisy: at times it was difficult to pick up the sounds of quieter birds for the singing of chiffchaffs, nuthatches, robins and great tits. 

The path through Keg Wood as far as the house by the orchard has just been resurfaced. I don't know if it's coincidence or not but I found the troughs and rises a lot easier on the knees on this visit.

A couple of birds flitting about in the birch trees by the entrance gate turned out to be a pair of siskins. This set the scene for a very productive wander round the wood. A couple of male blackcaps sang in shrubs along the path and a female gorged herself on ivy berries, adding to my collection of "There was a warbler here a moment ago" photos. There were a lot of chiffchaffs about, all of them singing from quite high in the trees. Every corner of the path seemed to have its own very vocal pair of nuthatches.

There's a dip and rise just after the fork in the path that goes down to Keg Pool. I was most of the way up the rise when I heard a green woodpecker yaffling from the trees at the top of the hill. I couldn't see it — it would have been astonishing if I could at that range. It's been so long since I've heard a yaffle it took me half a minute to recognise what I was hearing. (Note to self: mug up on bird songs and calls again, you're out of practice.)

Daffodils, Keg Wood

A chap passing by stopped for a chat and told me he'd just heard his first willow warbler of the year. I had no luck today, I'll have to wait until next month for my first. A lady sitting on a bench told me to listen out for the woodpecker in the trees by the shed at the end of the new road. I bumped into it a bit further along but didn't get a good sight of it. 

A bit further along I heard a goldcrest calling in some ivy by the path. It took me a while to see it — the calls were often swamped by the great tits and chiffchaffs in the trees behind it. Along the next bend I bumped into a pair of treecreepers flitting between the beech trees.

I sat and had a late lunch (a Capri-Sun and a fruit bar) at Sunny Corner in the company of a pair of coal tits and a couple of squirrels. Once I'd finished I strolled back to the country park, encountering lots more of the same along the way. Good to see so many butterflies this early in the season; plenty of small tortoiseshells and red admirals all over the shop and dozens of brimstones along the steeply wooded banks.

Ernocroft Wood

The country park was getting busy by now so after a quick shufti in Ernocroft Wood (woodpigeons, chiffchaffs and more coal tits) I wandered down and back to Compstall Road.

Beeches, Etherow Country Park

Another nice productive bit of birdwatching.

Elton Reservoir

Ravens a-courting

It was a bright, warm Spring day so I decided to go up to Elton Reservoir to get "the usual drake scaup" onto my year list (he's been on Elton Reservoir all Winter and had been reported as present and correct this morning).

Greenfinch

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the reservoir was that the water was even lower than it was during last year's long dry spell. Work's being done to repair the damage done to the reservoir by the Winter's floods. The car park was mostly spoken for by repairs equipment so I could spend a while checking out the bird feeders without worrying about cars. I've no idea how the feeders get filled but I'm glad they do, it's always nice to see more than a dozen greenfinches in one place. They shared the space with house sparrows, great tits, chaffinches and goldfinches. A pair of ravens courted noisily on one of the electricity pylons behind the sailing club.

Ravens

The great expanses of fresh mud explains why there's been a purple patch of passage waders over the past week or so (and also why it's important to catch them early in the morning before people decide to walk their dogs along the waterline despite all the notices warning about deep mud). It was coming up to lunchtime when I arrived so the only waders I got were a few lapwings and oystercatchers that came in when the dog walkers went home for their dinners. 

Elton Reservoir

It was fairly quiet at the sailing club end of the reservoir, largely because the repair crew's inflatable boat was to-ing a fro-ing a fair bit. The coots, mallards and mute swans weren't much fussed but the Canada geese kept a wide berth and there were no diving ducks this end. There were still fifty-odd black-headed gulls about, dividing their time equally between a diffuse raft loafing near the far bank, a crowd sharing the bit of mud the dogs missed and a flock soaring overhead, possibly after the first decent emergence of flying insects. The warm sun had coaxed a lot of small tortoiseshells into flying about, together with a couple of peacocks. A few St, Thingie's flies flying round the hawthorn bushes were a couple of weeks early by my reckoning. The midges were inevitable in the circumstances.

The paths to the creek were surprisingly good. The creek was almost dry, which gave a conservation team the opportunity to remove a couple of bin bags full of offerings to the Dog Shit Fairy. Beyond the creek the path was reassuringly execrable. I decided to keep to the horses' hoofprints on the principle that if the ground could support a horse it could support me and this worked in all but the places where the horses got their fetlocks dirty.

Goldeneye

I'd come to see the usual drake scaup and he was nowhere to be seen! A raft of 22 goldeneyes was almost compensation. The only other diving ducks were a pair of sleeping tufties.

Goldeneye

Goldeneye, a pair of sleeping tufted ducks in the foreground

A water rail squealing in the reeds on Capsticks (the wet field at the Radcliffe end of the reservoir) was the day's first addition to the year list. I decided to have a quick nosy on Withins Reservoir. The path was literally a stream, which gave me the chance to clean my boots. I had a scan of the field to see if any wheatears had dropped in; they hadn't. A raft of birds far out on the water at the West end of the reservoir turned out to be a shoveler, two dozen tufted ducks, a pair of great crested grebes and the usual drake scaup. Even at this distance I could see he was now properly into his adult plumage.

I got the bus into Rochdale, the idea being to get the train back into Manchester and check out what was on the canal at Castleton and the fields ponds at Mills Hill. A swallow flying over Heywood Cemetery was a happy bonus and the third addition to the year list. A flock of Canada geese were dotted about in pairs in the field by the canal just outside Castleton. The big pool in the field just outside Mills Hill only had four coots on the water, a couple of pairs of teal dabbled in the flooded field on the Chadderton side of the line here.

I decided to get the tram to the Trafford Centre to get the full value of the tram ticket I'd bought to get to Bury. At Pomona I watched a male sparrowhawk soaring high over the canal. Every so often one of a pair of lesser black-backs would drift over to check it out, the gull easily dwarfing the sparrowhawk. I'd hoped to do some gull watching from Wharfside but there was a sculling race in progress and the only birds on the water was the usual herd of mute swans.

The Trafford Centre was quiet save for a handful of pigeons and a pair of carrion crows. I got back in time to see the pair of coal tits arrive with the evening crew at the bird feeders.

Quite a fruitful day.

Pennington Flash

Goldcrest, Pennington Flash

The weather forecast was grey but dry, though this morning's cloud cover suggested it could be anything from bright sun to pouring rain and the wind could push any old rubbish in. So I decided to go for a stroll round Pennington Flash now it's OK to travel locally (which I'm taking to be within the area permitted by my monthly travel card).

Business as usual in the garden first thing, with the blackbird, song thrush and wren struggling to shout over each other. I've put lion dung pellets on the parts of the garden favoured by the neighbourhood cats; they don't appear to be convincing them to stay away. 

• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 12
• Jackdaw 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Robin 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Woodpigeon 1
• Wren 1

No gulls again on the school playing fields, just crowds of woodpigeons and jackdaws, though three lesser black-backs flew low in to see if there were any pickings on the playground (they were a couple of hours early). The magpies have finished building a nest on top of last year's nest in the flowering pear tree. The carrion crows are back using the nest in the tree on the corner, making noisy and clumsy arrivals after outraging decency with their boisterous lovemaking in the long jump sand pit.

On my way over to the Trafford Centre for the bus to Leigh there was a steady flow of lesser black-backs overhead. It was notable that there wasn't a single black-headed gull on Davyhulme Retail Park and only a couple of them on the sewage works.

Anemone blanda, Pennington Flash

The weather was starting to clear up when I arrived at Pennington Flash. Spring was in the air at the entrance, both with the carpets of Anemone blanda and the songs of robins, dunnocks. song thrushes and great tits. A pair of jays flew low over the meadow and disappeared into the trees by Aspull Common.

There was a goldcrest there a moment ago.

There's been a lot of hedge-trimming along the path by the meadow, which meant there wasn't much cover for the small birds here. A couple of robins flitted about, a great tit called in the willows and a goldcrest hunted for small moths on the bark of the big white poplar. Chiffchaffs called from the trees along the road.

Pennington Flash

The car park was busy with cars, not particularly busy with people and fairly quiet of birds. A handful of Canada geese lurked on the bank with a couple of mute swans, a few mallards and not many coots. A dozen or so black-headed gulls wheeled around and out in the middle of the flash a raft of lesser black-backs loafed in the sunshine. A couple of great crested grebes swam near the bank, more could be seen along the banks on the far side of the flash. Unusually there wasn't a single tufted duck. A pair of gadwall hugged the bank near the ice cream van.

Pennington Flash, the spit from Horrocks Hide

Looking out over the spit from the side of the Horrocks Hide I was struck by how much of the spit was underwater despite the water not seeming particularly high. It looks like some of the shingle has been washed back by the Winter flooding. I wonder what this might mean for waders dropping in on passage.

Pennington Flash

The tufted ducks I hadn't seen on the flash were on Pengy's Pool and the pool in front of the Tom Edmondson Hide.

Female garganey, Pennington Flash

A Cetti's warbler gave a quick burst of song from the usual patch of reeds and brambles on the corner near Ramsdales Hide. Almost the first thing I saw from the screen by the hide was the pair of garganey that had been reported over the weekend, sat nicely in a patch of open water by a spit of land. It was a moment of pure dumb luck: within seconds the drake drifted over to the spit, found a lump of grass to hide behind and, I think, went to sleep. The duck took to playing hide and seek in the rocks along the water's edge. Two welcome additions to the year list. A chap I'd bumped into said to look out for a little ringed plover that had arrived today but I had no joy there.

I wandered round to Pengy's Hide to see if the three-cornered leeks were in flower yet: plenty of leaves but I think it'll be another couple of weeks before they're ready. Good numbers of great tit and blue tit in the trees by Bunting Hide, accompanied by robins, dunnocks and the only bullfinch of the day.

Mute swan, Pennington Flash

It was still early so I contemplated getting the bus over to Bury for a wander round Elton Reservoir but decided against: it's a fair drag over and I would have been arriving at school kicking out time. One for tomorrow I think.

Gloomy

Barton Clough

A wild and windy night involving a couple of hailstorms gave way to a cool, grey windy day. The rambling rose is suddenly in full leaf and the spadgers are settled in for the day, the bird feeders being just a couple of feet away. 

The tailless collared dove is showing a little more in the way of new tail feathers giving it a peculiar bat-like shape. It's being targeted by one of the magpies but even the loss of manoeuvrability without much of a tail it easily outpaces any magpie. A late afternoon influx of starlings was a bit of a surprise.

• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 3
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 12
• Jackdaw 8
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 1
• Starling 35
• Woodpigeon 3

I had a wander round the local patch in the gloom this lunchtime. It was fairly quiet of both birds and people. At least, it seemed quiet of birds but there was a lot lurking about quietly, particularly the flock of woodpigeons loafing about in the copse behind the school.

The pair of mistle thrushes have taken proprietorship of the avenue of poplars and one of the song thrushes was singing from the far corner of the park. Two chiffchaffs are holding singing territories, one at the back of the park and the other in the copse behind the school. A lot of the brambles have been flattened, I think there'll be limited nesting opportunities for whitethroats when they arrive. 

The odd squeaking chirrup that had me looking up in the air for some unknown sort of wader turned out to be three jays sitting on the warehouse roof. Once they noticed I'd seen them they bounced over into the tree in front of me, gave a couple of soft chirrups and headed off towards the flyover.

• Blackbird 7
• Blue Tit 6
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Chiffchaff 2
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 33 overhead
• Goldfinch 14
• Great Tit 4
• Greenfinch 1
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 5
• Jay 3
• Magpie 8
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 6
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 3
• Woodpigeon 32
• Wren 4

Home thoughts

Goldfinch

One of those days that start extremely wet and windy and settle down to an unpredictable mixture of sun, cloud and heavy rain, with the wind constantly providing a cold edge. Consequently it was mid-morning before the birds came into the garden in any numbers. I refilled all the feeders just after lunch, including the bird table I moved under the Mahonia, this is favoured by the collared doves and the titmice use it when the spadgers come in mob-handed. It's getting quite hard to catch the titmice at the moment, they're doing short hit-and-run visits and are obviously busy elsewhere. 

• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 3
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 14
• Jackdaw 4
• Magpie 2
• Starling 4
• Woodpigeon 2

A gull-less day on the school playing fields prompts me to wonder where all these woodpigeons have come from. They're nowhere round here all Winter. There's no interaction between the woodpigeons and black-headed gulls on this field so I shouldn't think they've stayed away because they've been crowded out (besides which woodpigeons can manage to hold their own with flocks of crows or rooks). Compared to the fields along the Mersey Valley or on the mosses I would guess this would be suboptimal for feeding, something to resort to in hungry April, but they stay all Summer. Then they'll disappear again in Autumn. A reminder that "resident" birds shift about a lot.

• Feral Pigeon 3
• Jackdaw 3
• Rook 1
• Starling 10
• Woodpigeon 41

Mersey Valley

Coot, Broad Ees Dole

After yesterday's long walk I was in two minds whether or not to go for one today. An outbreak of mowing machines on the school playing field and the field on the other side of the railway decided it for me and I headed off for Stretford Meadows.

Although it was cooler, cloudier and windier today there was still enough sun for it to be pleasant walking weather. I wanted to do a count of singing chiffchaffs today so I decided to take the path skirting the cricket pitch then round and over the main mound down to the main path. There were three singing chiffchaffs today, there'll be more as Spring progresses and they'll be joined by a medley of other warblers.

Stretford Meadows

The usual kestrels and buzzard were notable by their absence. The only birds flying overhead were a couple of pairs of carrion crows and a jackdaw. 

The walk down the path along Kickety Brook and onto Stretford Ees was surprisingly quiet, though I added to my tally of singing chiffchaffs. 

Sale Water Park

I bobbed over the river onto Sale Water Park. For the first time since High Summer the lake was entirely bereft of gulls. In fact there wasn't much at all on this end of the lake: three coots, two mallard drakes and a pair of great crested grebes. Looking over to the Cow Lane end I could see the usual herd of mute swans stretched between the fishing stages and the canoe slipway and the Canada geese sitting on the slipway in the hopes of mugging any food-bearing passersby.

Broad Ees Dole was a bit livelier. A couple of pairs of Canada geese and a pair of mute swans loafed on Teal Pool while a pair of coots put a lot of effort into harassing any and all passing moorhens, which in turn worked hard at harassing each other. The pool by the hide was quiet again and the water was still high. Half a dozen teal dabbled in the litter on the far side, I could only see three dabchicks and there was just the one pair of gadwall. A couple of chiffchaffs flitted across the willows by the hide without making a sound. A female grey wagtail walking along the fence was equally silent. A chap I've seen before came into the hide, we swapped "A bit quiet todays" and he moved on. A couple of minutes later a female goosander flew in. I gave it another five minutes, decided it wasn't going to be my day for a kingfisher and made a move myself.

It had been relatively quiet, a normal weekday crowd really, but it was coming up to school kicking out time so I decided not to carry on through the water park and on to Chorlton. I decided instead to bob under the motorway and have an hour's wander round Priory Gardens before heading off home.

Priory Gardens

Priory Gardens was quietly busy with birds, only a couple of chiffchaffs making very much effort at singing. A melee of feathers and bad-tempered chirrups that bounced through a couple of hawthorns turned out to be four male great tits and a single female, the males intent on what the BirdTrack recording form describes as "Courtship and display." I made an excuse and left.

Passing under the subway at  Humphrey Park Station I bumped into the first blackcap of the day as it sang in the brambles by the line.

Mosses

Kestrel, Astley Moss

The aches and pains of the past couple of days having abated I slept through till six when I was woken up with a start by the song thrush banging out his song from the sycamores on the railway embankment.

It being what's looking like the last nice day of the month I decided to have a wander over to the Salford mosses, starting from Cutnook Lane and going down Twelve Yards Road for a change.

Along the way, I had a wander round Beyond and iFly to see if the Trafford Centre peregrines were around. Lots of goldfinches and magpies, three singing chiffchaffs and a greenfinch doing its singing display flight across a deserted road, but no peregrines.

Coltsfoot, Chat Moss

I got to Cutnook Lane, over the motorway bridge and onto the moss, stopping to chat with a motorist who wanted to tell me about the time he was attacked by a mistle thrush when he was a kid. While he was telling me this (and more) a buzzard landed in the field behind him and spent a couple of minutes eating worms before being chased off by carrion crows.

Cutnook Lane

The hedgerows down Cutnook Lane were liberally peppered with goldfinches, robins and wrens; chiffchaffs and great tits sang from hawthorn bushes and three mallards flew overhead from the fishery pond before wheeling round and going back whence they came. A very camera shy goldcrest accompanied me half the way from the fishery to the corner of Twelve Yards Road. I've decided that some day soon I'm going to carry on walking down Cutnook Lane to the end to see where it goes.

Lapwing bath time, Chat Moss

The field at the corner of Cutnook Lane and Twelve Yards Road was wet, which suited the pied wagtails and lapwings more than it did the woodpigeons and stock doves. The first of a long procession of skylarks rose from the stubble and sang on high. The fields to the North of the road were busy with carrion crows and woodpigeons, with a handful of lapwings hiding in plain sight. 

Twelve Yards Road

The telephone lines South of the road going to the farmhouse with the peacock were lined with starlings and a kestrel. The starlings didn't seem remotely fussed, which is odd as I'm sure a kestrel could and would take a starling down.

I got to Four Lanes End and spent a while picking out the birds in one of the goat willows: a singing male linnet was sharing it with half a dozen females, a robin, two meadow pipits, a great tit and a yellowhammer. The tree immediately next to it had a dozen goldfinches, just to confuse the noises.

Buzzard, Chat Moss

The original plan was to turn left and head for Irlam then make my way home but it was lunchtime on a nice Spring day, I had nowhere to be in a hurry and I've never done it before so I turned right up Astley Road. I'd not got as far as the end of the first field when two buzzards soared up from behind the farmhouse and a motley collection of small brown birds rose from the stubble field and scattered round the nearby trees and hedgerows. It took a while to work my way through the crowd once I'd worked out where they'd gone: there were a couple of small flocks of linnets and goldfinches, a few pairs each of chaffinch, reed bunting and yellowhammer, a few house sparrows, a pair of shapes fleeing into the distance that were tantalisingly suggestive of corn bunting, and half a dozen meadow pipits.

I do try to take photos of the small birds but on the rare occasions they strike a pose for the camera they always make sure the light's against me.
Yellowhammer, Chat Moss

Every so often I'd hear a quack and find a pair of mallard sitting in a roadside ditch. 

A selection box of Rindle Road pheasants

I walked down and turned into Rindle Road, over the level crossing and on towards Astley Green. The fields are less open along this stretch and there was less about. Pheasants being the exception: a silly number and variety of pheasants seem to have been released locally, every field had a few and I couldn't go far without seeing a couple of cocks chasing each other across the road.

Lancashire Mining Museum, Astley Green

Then on through Lower Green and Higher Green, avoiding lorries all the way, and into Astley proper. I didn't fancy a walk down the East Lancs Road so I headed for Manchester Road and went home via Boothstown and Worsley. It felt like a much longer walk than the one I had planned but it wasn't by very much, it might just be because it's the first time I've done it. I'm not sure I'd add North of the railway to my list of regular walks, though when things are more normal it might be worth getting the bus to Lower Green and walking down to Irlam to see if that works better.

Salford Quays

Great crested grebe, Salford Quays

Any day that starts with a pink-footed goose flying overhead — just the one, mark you — can't be all bad. It's a bit unnerving to have the first wild grey goose of the year this late in March but we live in unusual times. A singing mistle thrush was a reminder that they are about round here; for such relatively large, noisy birds they keep a very low profile away from playing fields and parks. Other than that it was a typical grey, gloomy sort of day in the garden.

• Black-headed Gull 1
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 4
• Dunnock 1
• House Sparrow 9
• Jackdaw 2
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 1
• Magpie 2
• Mistle Thrush 1
• Pink-footed Goose 1 overhead
• Robin 2
• Rook 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 3
• Wren 1

Over on the school playing field a handful of lesser black-backs briefly joined the jackdaws and woodpigeons before wheeling off towards Trafford Park.

Mute swans, Salford Quays

It turns out I'm one of the people whose systems respond a bit over enthusiastically to the vaccine so I thought I'd have an hour or so's walk round Wharfside and Salford Quays this lunchtime to try and walk some of the aches out. It was a bit quiet, unsurprisingly as it was too early for the gull roosts. The usual herd of mute swans was loafing about. A couple of the adult males have started making extended aggression displays at the youngsters, they'll soon be given their marching orders. A single great crested grebe was asleep by the Wharfside embankment.

Lesser black-back drying itself after a bath, Salford Quays

A dozen black-headed gulls loafed and squabbled on the Salford side of the water. There was a couple of small rafts of large gulls, nearly all adult lesser black-backs, none of the herring gulls were adults.

The walk and the cold wind weren't making any appreciable difference to the aches and pains so I knocked on the head any ideas of walking over to the Ecology Park and went home for a kip, which turned out did do the trick.

Parks and gardens

Grey wagtail, Alexandra Park

Business as usual in the garden this morning with the sparrows and collared doves making inroads on the mixed seed I put out yesterday and the goldfinches returning to the nyger feeders. The male wren is being very visible lately, splitting his time between fossicking round in the boysenberries and sitting on the back fence singing. A singing blackcap was a welcome burst of Spring on a chilly grey morning.

• Blackbird 2
• Blackcap 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Blue Tit 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Feral Pigeon 3
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 2
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
• Magpie 1
• Robin 2
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 4
• Wren 1

Dabchick, Alexandra Park

I had to go into Whalley Range for my Coronovirus jab and seeing as it was literally five minutes' walk away from Alexandra Park I decided to have another look at the ring-necked duck. So she chose today to bob over to Platt Fields for a day out. A pair of grey wagtails was a consolation even though both weren't for staying in a pose while the camera did its magic. Three of the nests in the heronry looked occupied, with two birds evidently sitting on something more than just sticks and twigs.

Moorhen, Alexandra Park

Heronry with grey herons, Alexandra Park

There's definitely a passage of lesser black-backs going on at the moment, on top of the regulars that are getting ready to breed in Trafford Park. 

Home thoughts

Awake again for the dawn chorus: a trio of sparring blackbirds and me dozily trying — and failing — to turn the calling lesser black-backs into passing scoters. It felt very quiet in the garden though there was no time when there wasn't something going on out there. The tailless collared dove has lost the tatters of its old tail feathers and has the promise of dark new ones just showing. The female great tit's inspecting the nest boxes again, it would be nice to have something over than tree bumblebees and wood mice use one.

• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 3
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 1
• Greenfinch 1
• House Sparrow 15
• Jackdaw 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Robin 1
• Starling 4
• Woodpigeon 3
• Wren 1

An entirely gull-less day out on the school playing field, nearly all the action was woodpigeons and jackdaws. As I was repainting the front doorstep I noticed a crow harrying a male sparrowhawk as it soared over the school, past my house and off towards the river.

Local patch

Goat willow, Barton Clough

Another cool day getting progressively greyer and clouduer as the day progressed. And another morning of assorted birdsong in the garden, though for the first time this week I slept through the dawn chorus. Looking at the bird reports there's evidentially a nocturnal passage of common scoters going on this week, all I've been hearing is Network Rail workmen and the production lines at Kellogg's. I've bought a fresh giant pine cone in response to hints by the spadgers, long-tailed tits and the goldcrest. I have a pile of giant cones in the corner of the garden, I dare say they'll become Winter roosting sites for ladybirds and lacewings (he wrote optimistically).

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 7
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 2
• Wren 1

No black-headed gulls on the school playing field again today, just half a dozen each of jackdaws and woodpigeons and a very pale second-Winter herring gull.

I had a wander round the local patch which was quiet in numbers but loud in titmice, wrens and dunnocks singing from the sidelines. What I thought was one resident pair of crows in the park turns out to be two: the pair nesting by Barton Dock Road and another pair to-ing and fro-ing between the line of poplars and the primary school. Good to see the nuthatch is still around, it was feeding in one of the elderberry bushes with the usual male chaffinch. Also good to be seeing a couple of pairs of greenfinches flying about.

I had a long chat (long listen really) with a chap who'd come along for a sit down, a smoke and a packet of Jaffa cakes. "I used to come here all the time for a sit down and a smoke. I remember when there was a rail line here, and when that car showroom over the road was a container yard." I didn't have the heart to tell him that before long this quiet stretch of very raw nature is likely to be another cluster of prefab warehouses.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 5
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chaffinch 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 17 overhead
• Goldfinch 7
• Great Tit 7
• Greenfinch 5
• House Sparrow 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 1
• Magpie 12
• Mistle Thrush 1
• Nuthatch 1
• Robin 8
• Song Thrush 1
• Woodpigeon 20
• Wren 3

Chorlton

Coal tit, Sale Water Park

A cooler, greyer, windier day today so after a quiet time in the garden I thought I'd take a chance on a walk down to Chorlton Ees and perhaps have another go at finding willow tit on Sale Water Park.

The times are a-changing on the school playing field: today there were lots of woodpigeons and jackdaws but just the one gull, and that a common gull.

Stretford and Chorlton town centres were quieter than usual as far as pigeons are concerned — I suspect they were busy with other things — but there were plenty of woodpigeons, carrion crows and jackdaws about. Every so often I'd bump into some goldfinches, starlings or blue tits. It wasn't till I was most of the way down Hardy Lane that I saw my first black-headed gull flying over, just the one tagging after four lesser black-backs flying over towards Sale Water Park.

I got to the path onto Hardy Farm in the company of a coal tit, a ring-necked parakeet, a couple of jackdaws and a great spotted woodpecker. I didn't know it then but I'd be spending the whole afternoon bumping into parakeets and great spotted woodpeckers. There wasn't a single gull over on the football pitch, just a flock of woodpigeons and a pair of mistle thrushes.

A pair of jays were fossicking around the trees by the bridge at Jackson's Boat and a chiffchaff sang from one of the willows. The parakeets shrieked around the trees by the telegraph pole they often use as a nest site.

Coal tit, Sale Water Park

I took the high path through Sale Ees to the café by Sale Water Park and was a bit dismayed because it looked like there was a coach trip in. As it was it was just a few walking people taking group exercise and they were soon on their way. I got a coffee and set to watching the bird feeders. There were plenty of great tits and blue tits about and a coal tit came in a few times, It took a while for the first nuthatches and dunnocks to turn up. While I was watching the tables I noticed a pair of teal dabbling in the pool just beyond the willows. After half an hour's wait a willow tit finally turned up, grabbed a sunflower seed off the table and promptly disappeared again.

I had a look on the lake to see what was about. The usual herd of mute swans, rafts of Canada geese and tufted ducks and the coots dotted around the lake were obvious enough. A dozen or so black-headed gulls could be seen over on the other side of the lake and a couple of pairs of mallard hugged the nearby banks. Strangely I couldn't see any great crested grebes.

Great crested grebe, Sale Ees

I took the low path through Sale Ees back to Jackson's Boat. The first bird I bumped into was a great crested grebe feeding in the brook by the path. The usual pair of grey wagtails were feeding on the riverbank by Jackson's Boat.

Bracket fungus, Sale Ees

Chorlton Ees was noisy with birdsong and the shrieking of parakeets. Three or four chiffchaffs vied with the song thrushes for the loudest song and it was only by pure dumb luck I heard and found a singing goldcrest in the conifers by the river. A pair of woodpeckers were in the trees by the hay meadow, I quite often see them here.The herons don't seem to be nesting in the trees near Chorlton Brook this year, they were noisily fiddling with sticks in one of the conifers on the other side of the path.

Chorlton Brook, Ivy Green

I crossed over and walked along the brook through Ivy Green as the sun came out for ten minutes. Lots more small birdsong, a few more parakeets and another pair of woodpeckers. I was surprised to see a pair of mallard in the brook, I rarely see any ducks in here. I'd just sat down on a bench to take a 'phone call when a raven flew low overhead cronking loudly and easily outflying the pair of carrion crows chasing it.

Thence into Chorlton and off home, the only surprise being a heron noisily flying low over Wilbraham Road.