Stretford

One of the "silver team" cock spadgers

I decided to have a lazy day today. I had to fill the feeders again after the spadgers brought in a third wave of spadglings. Just three or four of them but I'm happy to see the production line's still rolling. One of the young great tits has latched onto the silver family group. It often seems the first move a juvenile blue tit or great tit makes to assert its independence from the family group is to join a family of house sparrows.

Stretford Meadows

Had a wander over to Stretford Meadows as the rain eased over and the clouds parted for an hour or so. 

Goldfinches, blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang from the trees at the Newcroft Road end of the meadows. Out in the open magpies and blackbirds fed in the grass and goldfinches and whitethroats bustled about in the bushes. 

Buzzard, Stetford Meadows

A couple of buzzards flew overhead, the wind was strong enough to allow them to hover over the meadows. They didn't linger, it occurs to me that I've never seen any evidence of rabbits on here. There was a steady stream of carrion crows, wood pigeons and jackdaws overhead. The heavy conditions, and the past few days' rain, suited the flock of swifts hawking low over the open scrub. Luckily for me the midges weren't biting.

Stretford Meadows

I spent a while enjoying the flowers, I don't pay them as much attention as I should. A dizzying selection of vetches, clovers and medicks were in flower, the purples of tufted vetch and the bright mustard yellow of horseshoe vetch making the biggest flashes of colour with splashes of white clover along the paths. There were also plenty of butterflies about including a pleasing number of ringlets, I spent a while trying — and failing — to get a decent photo of any of them.

Marsh thistles, Stretford Meadows

White clover, Stretford Meadows

I walked along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees. A sparrowhawk launched itself out of the trees near the canal and the woodpigeons clattered for cover.

Aside from the magpies feeding in the open and the reed buntings making noises in the sedges by the brook, the only birds on Stretford Ees were the few dozen house martins hawking overhead. A moorhen and her two small youngsters fed in the duckweeds on the pool at the end of the brook.

Stretford Ees

The clouds were looking interesting so I decided not to push my luck any further so I walked into Stretford to get my dad a new pair of slippers.