Pennington Flash

Egyptian goose

I had an afternoon stroll round Pennington Flash to take advantage of gloomy weekday weather. 

Horse chestnut

Walking down from St. Helens Road the birds were very quiet save for the frustrating chirps and ticks of young robins and great tits, the rustle of leaves as blackbirds, wrens and goldfinches moved through the undergrowth and the clatter of woodpigeons in the treetops. The quiet was shattered by a family of jays heralding the arrival of a parent with a great mouthful of what looked like steak and kidney pudding but was probably something not available at the freezer counter.

Egyptian geese

I arrived at the car park to find three Egyptian geese feeding amongst the mallards and pigeons. I don't know that these are the same birds that were here last year, if not this is a remarkable coincidence.

It's hard to see much of the spit by the Horrocks Hide over the herbage. A couple of dozen mallards slept while lapwings tiptoed round them. There were a few dozen black-headed gulls at the end of the spit; all the large gulls, mostly lesser black-backs, were out in open water. Oystercatchers were heard but not seen.

Moving on, the birdsong got louder. Blackbirds, wrens and blackcaps struggled to make themselves heard over the song thrushes. There were a few chiffchaffs around, and here and there a singing goldfinch. Family parties of great tits and blue tits moved quietly through the willows and dogwoods beside the path.

Pennington Flash

There wasn't much doing on the pools either side of the path by the Tom Edmondson Hide, just a few coots and moorhens and an adult heron.

Ramsdales was fairly quiet, mostly mallards and lapwings. It's good to see that the young lapwings are nearly full grown with hints of black crests adorning their yellow faces. A Cetti's warbler quietly sang in the reeds, something I didn't think they were capable of doing.

I walked down to Bunting Hide, adding sedge and reed warblers to the song list with fly-by cameos from a nuthatch and a family of long-tailed tits.

Westleigh Brook

I keep meaning to visit Hope Carr Nature Reserve again but haven't got round to it so I decided to walk over there taking the path that goes under Amberleigh Way then follows Westleigh Brook before turning and heading to Pennington Hall Park. I crossed St. Helens Road and walked down Chestnut Avenue to the little cut that takes you over the bridge into Hope Carr.

I'd hardly stepped onto the bridge when a Cetti's warbler broke into song in the hogweeds along Pennington Brook. I had to wait to get off the bridge as a family of great tits met a family of chiffchaffs in the elderberry bush at the corner of the path then spent some time foraging in the bushes before heading off together into deep undergrowth. I very quickly gave up trying to get a photo of any of them.

Hope Carr nature reserve

I dived into the trees and took the rough paths that go round the lagoons. It didn't take long for me to start wondering what all the biting insects feed on when occasional birdwatchers aren't passing through, there aren't enough roe deer in the world to satisfy those numbers. Luckily the hand sanitiser turns out to put them off a lot, I know to do it proactively in future. The brambles and head-high nettles were another thing again.

More jays and song thrushes in the trees, families of tufties and mallards on the water with some coots and moorhens. And reed warblers and whitethroats by the United Utilities car park.

As the bus back to the Trafford Centre passed through Astley I spotted a woodpigeon that was even more peculiar than the piebald individual back home. This bird was all white save grey flight feathers and tail and a sandy cream head.