Mersey Valley

Grey wagtail, River Mersey

The weather boded dodgy so I decided on a lunchtime stroll through Ivy Green then, depending on the weather, either retreat into Chorlton for the bus or else have a wander down to either Sale Water Park or Chorlton Water Park.

Not a day for identifying subtle differences in plumage between exotic vagrant passage migrants.

Chorlton Brook, Ivy Green

Ivy Green and Chorlton Ees were both fairly quiet: a few small mixed tit flocks, woodpigeons in hawthorn trees, magpies in the treetops and the occasional passing ring-necked parakeet. Chorlton Brook acts as the boundary between the two sites, it was nice to bump into a goldcrest in the tree by the bridge over it. The weather was grey and muggy, which seemed to be suiting the speckled wood butterflies a treat judging by their numbers.

The birdlife was numerically quiet at Jackson's Boat but a flock of half a dozen parakeets that were flying around made enough racket for hundreds, each bird vying to screech louder than the others. 

Jackson's Boat

Despite all the promises made by the Met Office app it had become warm and sunny. I noticed that workmen were checking out the sluices to Sale Ees so I decided to head for Chorlton Water Park. The walk down the Mersey was quieter than usual, possibly because the golf courses on either side were having their greens mown. I could hear a buzzard somewhere over Sale Golf Course but I was damned if I could see it. As I approached the cut into Barlow Tip I spotted the first dragonfly of the day, also the only migrant hawker of the day, as it buzzed downstream low over the river.

Speckled wood, Barlow Tip

I bobbed into Barlow Tip for a short wander. There were plenty of blackbirds, wrens and robins but none of the hoped-for warblers. Plenty of speckled woods about on the blackberries and quite a lot of brown hawkers patrolling the tops of the thistledown. A single damselfly went unidentified as it disappeared into the nettles.

Black-headed gulls, Chorlton Water Park

Chorlton Water Park was rather busier and noisier with a flock of black-headed gulls on the water and a couple of families of great crested grebes with young and very noisy youngsters. A mixed flock of swallows and house martins stopped for a bath and proved impossible to photograph.

Juvenile great crested grebe

The herd of mute swans included half a dozen full-grown cygnets and small rafts of mallards and tufted ducks dotted the water. There were only a couple of pairs of gadwall today.

I walked down the Mersey alongside Kenworthy Wood. A couple of young grey wagtails preened at the water's edge by the shoals. A mixed tit flock included a family of long-tailed tits. Another couple of ring-necked parakeets screeched over the treetops. The sun shone and it started raining.

I'd had a couple of hours' wander, which was an hour longer than I'd expected, so I called it quits and headed for the bus. The sky went black and it stopped raining.

Waiting for the bus