Mersey Valley

Ring-necked parakeets, Banky Lane

It was a damp grey morning and it was mostly business as usual in the garden. I generally underestimate the number of sparrows coming in, there's not many I can identify individually so I can never be sure whether most of them are coming in for the first time or returning for seconds. Today was different: both troupes turned up at the same time and the garden was packed with spadgers for ten minutes, including standing room only at the birdbath.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Goldfinch 2
• House Sparrow 26
• Jackdaw 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Rook 2
• Starling 4
• Woodpigeon 2

It had been the second night I was still wide awake when the blackbirds started tuning up for the dawn chorus so I didn't really feel much like going for a walk. After deciding where I didn't want to go I thought I'd have a wander round Cob Kiln Wood because it's not far, it doesn't get busy and it's impossible to ride a bike through it.

Blue tit, Cob Kiln Wood

I'd barely stepped onto the path into the wood when a coal tit started singing nearby, pairs of blue tits and great tits bounced through the trees and a couple of male greenfinches started knocking hell out of each other as they vied for the attentions of a female which didn't seem much interested in either of them. 

Cob Kiln Wood

This pretty much set the scene for the walk, although there were notable absentees — no nuthatches, bullfinches or redwings today — the trees and bushes were full of small birds singing, showing off or snatching a lunch break before resuming singing and showing off. Away from parks, gardens and bird hides small British passerines are hard work to photograph and I had quite a few photos of birdless foliage to prove it. 

Buzzard, Cob Kiln Wood

By the time I'd reached the electricity pylons it had become a bright sunny afternoon and the only downside of the walk was the paths being muddier than ever. As I stood in the clearing a pair of buzzards rose out of the trees and climbed on the thermals, calling to each other all the while and occasionally banking into display flight passes at each other. 

Ring-necked parakeets, Banky Lane

I reached the path to the river and had to decide what to do next: follow the path back into the wood and back home, take the path into Urmston, follow the river round to Kickety Brook or cross the river and either go down Banky Lane or past the golf course into Ashton-on-Mersey. On a whim I crossed the river and went down Banky Lane.

Banky Lane

Overhead the pair of buzzards were mobbed by a third and the three birds soared and climbed and headed over towards Urmston Meadows. The first birds I bumped into along the woodland fringes were a pair of bullfinches and a singing chiffchaff. Blue tits and great tits flitted about with chaffinches and goldfinches and ring-necked parakeets canoodled in the trees. Dabchicks and moorhens could be seen but not heard amongst the drowned willows.

I had a sit down on a bench by the rugby pitch and had a think about where to go next. I still felt tired and though it would be easy enough to carry on towards Carrington I'd be travelling home in the twilight and I wasn't really in the mood for that so I decided to complete the loop around the water treatment works, cross the river and head off for Kickety Brook.

Rookery, Kickety Brook

As I walked down the river I could see the rooks congregating in the rookery by the water treatment works on Bradley Lane, flying in from the fields across the river. I don't know why they leave the fields on Bradley Lane to the carrion crows, perhaps they're too wet for their liking.

Ousel Brook

Armed with a Riverbank coffee I joined the path into the Kickety Brook woodland and walked down past Ousel Brook, over the motorway bridge and into Stretford Meadows in the company of titmice, chaffinches and every ten yards another pair of long-tailed tits. The sun was low and my joints ached at the thought of climbing up muddy paths so I stuck to the bridleway, walking down to the nursery and them home. There was the usual late afternoon passage of woodpigeons, jackdaws, black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs and a cormorant steamed off in the direction of the river.

Stretford Meadows