Mersey Valley

Whitethroat, Barlow Tip

I was woken by the garden warbler singing a couple of hours earlier than usual. It's a strange thing but when I hear the blackcap singing in my garden I have an internal dialogue that goes: "There's the blackcap. Are you sure that's the blackcap? Yes, I think so. It might be the garden warbler. Of course it's the blackcap." And yet when I hear the garden warbler actually sing I recognise it immediately, it's significantly different to anything else out there.

As it was a dull Sunday afternoon I thought I'd chance going for a stroll round Chorlton Water Park. It was a good call: it wasn't particularly busy with people. It wasn't particularly busy with birds, either. 

Barlow Tip

I spent longer than intended wandering around Barlow Tip. I was just going to pop in for a quick scan round but there was a lot of warbler action going on with chiffchaffs, whitethroats and willow warblers outsinging the blackbirds and song thrushes for a change. Wrens and reed buntings provided backing vocals. There was also a lot of flitting about by small birds, most of which eventually turned out to be blue tits, blackcaps, dunnocks or robins. A couple of chaffinches were seen but not heard. At least two whitethroat families had hungry mouths to feed.

Whitethroat. Barlow Tip

I suspect I missed a lesser whitethroat along the way. While I may have confused myself silly with blackcaps and garden warblers I've completely lost my ear for lesser whitethroats. There was a possible which I can't confirm despite listening to recordings. Once I stop worrying about it I'll bump into loads of them.

By the time I'd emerged from Barlow Tip it had become a sunny afternoon so I scrubbed the plan to wander down to Sale Water Park to try and find willow tits and see if anything interesting had parked itself on Broad Ees Dole. Instead I walked along the river to Kenworthy Woods.

There had been quite a few common blue damselflies on Barlow Tip, the river embankment had lots of them, mostly males. You could scarce take a step without disturbing at least two or three. Nice to finally see them in numbers.

A grey wagtail and a couple of blackcaps gleaning from waterside clumps of hogweed were the only birds on the river.

Kenworthy Woods

Walking through Kenworthy Woods I bumped into a mixed tit flock: a family of blue tits and a family of long-tailed tits foraging in the trees by the main path. Half a dozen swifts flew overhead, they had been notable by their absence over the water courses. Leaving the main path the songscape was primarily chiffchaffs and wrens with support from a few blackbirds and a couple of song thrushes. The only jay of the day was ostentatiously ignoring a family of carrion crows.

By the time I'd walked through the woods I'd had a couple of hours' strolling about so I called it quits and got the bus from Yew Tree Road. It had felt like a quiet birdwatching session but I'd still got forty species on the list even with quite a few notable absentees.