Sale Water Park

Dabchick, Broad Ees Dole

It was a grey and very blustery day. The spadgers evidently have some young mouths on the go, the visits to the feeders are for quick topping up only and there's a lot of gleaning going on amongst the leaf buds on the railway sycamores. Other than they I'd almost think the garden has been deserted by the birds were it not for having to refill the feeders every other day.

I decided to go for a walk down to Sale Water Park. I walked through Hardy Farm with the wind blowing hard into my face. All the small birds were staying under cover and the wind made it difficult to pin down where the calls were coming from. A gang of jackdaws lurked at the edge of the football pitch waiting for the kids to stop playing. Each time play moved over to the other half the jackdaws hopped over to see if anything interesting had been kicked up.

It was the first time in years I've not bumped into the ring-necked parakeets at Jackson's Boat. The first of many blackcaps of the day sang in the car park.

Sale Ees

I walked through Sale Ees. The trees were busy with great tits and robins and pairs of mallard and mute swan dabbled in the brook. I'd almost reached Cow Lane when I bumped into a chiffchaff feeding on the ground at the base of a blackthorn. It rummaged amongst the moss for a while until it was chased off by a wren which seemed to have proprietorial rights to the spot. Leastways, it lingered and made a point of singing from the top of a clod of earth by the moss.

There was a canoe class going on at Sale Water Park so most of the birds were sticking close to the banks. There weren't many ducks, just a handful of mallard, and the usual Canada geese and mute swans. The only gulls were two black-headed gulls flying overhead and two herring gulls loafing over at the other side of the lake where just over a hundred sand martins were hawking over the water.

The water was still high on Broad Ees Dole. From the hide I could see just a couple of Canada geese, a couple of mallard and a couple of herons, and a single dabchick feeding in the ditch just in front. There were more birds on the teal pool including a few mallard and Canada geese, a couple of pairs of gadwall and, appropriately enough, a handful of teal.

Stretford Ees was very quiet. I took the hint and went home.