Home again

Collared dove

It had been an unexpectedly busy morning and by lunchtime I was too jiggered to go out for a walk. It was a busy day out in the garden: a couple of dozen spadgers set up camp by the feeders just after dawn, they were muscled out for an hour or so just after lunchtime by a crowd of starlings, the first big flock of Winter. There was a bit of a to-do as a sparrowhawk passed overhead, badgered all the way by a carrion crow which only succeeded in keeping it in its air space twice as long as than the hawk had intended.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1 overhead
• Coal tit 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 24
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 2
• Sparrowhawk 1 overhead
• Starling 41
• Woodpigeon 1

The black-headed gulls were back on the school playing field, giving the earthworm population a bit of a hammer.

• Black-headed Gull 42
• Common Gull 3
• Herring Gull 4
• Jackdaw 4
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
• Rook 8

I noticed I only had space for a week's photos on my camera card so I popped into Manchester to buy another. On the way home I stopped by All Saints Park to have a quick look to see if the Blyth's reed warbler that was reported yesterday was still about. Unsurprisingly not, there's not that much in the way of cover here. I wonder if it'll be turning up in Platt Fields. (If it's staying local at all it'll be more likely to join the dippers in the disreputable stretch of the Medlock by Palmerston Street.)

Salford

Goldeneye drakes

Another very cold morning with a garden full of spadgers and titmice. They were all too intent on feeding to bother either when the cat went out for a pee or when I went out to scrape the dregs out of the cat's bowl onto the bird tray for the magpies. The magpies didn't wait for me to be much more than an arm's length away before tucking in. And it turns out that collared doves aren't above having a nibble of a bit of dried "ocean fish," either.

• Blackbird 3
• Blue Tit 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Great Tit 3
• House Sparrow 23
• Magpie 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 7

Strangely there wasn't much on the school playing field, the ground must be too hard for the gulls. There were seven black-headed gulls perched on one of the roofs and that was the lot.

With plenty of snow on the ground and dark skies I was tempted to go out on a wild goose chase, a white backdrop and flat light making it easier to see what's around. Then I looked at the weather forecast, looked at the trains and remembered it was Monday so I decided to do a bit of urban birdwatching.  (The sort of urban birdwatching that isn't "The nature reserve was only a short forty mile drive from my hotel.") Which today meant having a short walk along the River Irwell between Broughton Bridge and Peel Park.

River Irwell, Salford

I got the 93 bus out of Manchester and got off at Broughton Bridge, opposite the scant remains of what was the Mocha Shopping Parade. Arguably I should have walked it but the bus was there and I couldn't be bothered.

Cormorant

There wasn't the usual crowd of Canada geese by the bus stop, a few were on the river, a couple of dozen were feeding on the bank over by the Adelphi Bridge, no idea where any of the rest were. A few mallards dabbled by the bank near to a loafing heron and a cormorant sat drying its wings on a rock in the stream. A pied wagtail flew over and I could hear but not see a grey wagtail. The main action near the ex-shopping centre was in the hedges with a mixed tit flock — a dozen each of blue tits and long-tailed tits plus a few great tits and dunnocks. Robins, blackbirds and wrens fossicked in the undergrowth and a flock of six mistle thrushes joined a flock of starlings in one of the big trees.

Heron

A friend said last week that the goldeneyes were back on the river. I hadn't gone far before I spotted the first of them, a small raft of half a dozen females. A few yards ahead of them five males were keeping to themselves and another five females were a bit further ahead. They were very busy feeding, spending more time underwater than above.

Female goldeneyes

Female goldeneyes

Female goldeneyes

Goldeneye drakes

Goldeneyes
They were moving a few yards upstream to what looked like a more promising shoal near the Adelphi Bridge

I spent half an hour having a nosy round The Meadow. At first it looked like there was nothing but a couple of magpies and a carrion crow but a bit of patient listening paid dividends and I found a few blackbirds and robins in the trees at the bottom and a mixed flock of long-tailed tits, blue tits and goldcrests flitted about in the birches by the path.

The Meadow

There wasn't a lot on Peel Park. A small flock of black-headed gulls and a single tufted duck joined the mallards on the river and a few woodpigeons flew about. It started drizzling and I was starting to find every piece of ice underfoot on the path here so I decided to call it quits while I was still on two feet. Not a bad stroll on an unpromising sort of day.

Giant hogweed, River Irwell

Winter wonderland

One of the lads

Mandatory "Ooh, look, it's snowing!" pictures.

Woodpigeon

One of the older male spadgers

This is the male spadger with the particularly bright silver-grey cheeks

Spadgers, one of the younger males in front

Dunnock

Male coal tit

Oddly enough, there wasn't much about save a couple of magpies, until it started snowing.

• Blackbird 4
• Blue Tit 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Dunnock 2
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 29
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 2
• Starling 3
• Woodpigeon 2

Over on the school playing field the snow brought in a few more common gulls than usual.

• Black-headed Gull 30
• Common Gull 7
• Herring Gull 1
• Jackdaw 8
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 6
• Magpie 7
• Rook 10

Windy day

Male starling (blue bill)

I get far more nervous than the cat when there's a howling wind outside After a fitful and broken few hours' sleep with cotton wool in my ears to try and dampen the sound of the hooley outside I did a quick inspection as I let the cat out to play. The sum total of wreckage was one of the wheelie bins moving six feet down the side path. I knew none of the trees had fallen over because the trains were running. All the leaves are off the sycamores on the embankment, revealing on opening the bedroom curtains the eight woodpigeons and two carrion crows that had just been suspicious shapes earlier in the week.

The wind abated to a low moan mid-morning and the spadgers rolled up to spend the day on the feeders, At one point they were joined by twenty-eight starlings. I refilled all the feeders at lunchtime confident in the knowledge I'll probably need to do it again tomorrow morning.

Female starling (yellow bill)

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 2
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 1
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 23
• Jackdaw 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 28
• Woodpigeon 8

In case you were wondering how the weight of a grey squirrel could snap a metal pole.
This beggar's stolen the last of the strawberries.

Strangely, the strong winds don't seem to have blown in many more gulls than usual on the school playing field:

• Black-headed Gull 34
• Common Gull 1
• Herring Gull 1 1st-winter
• Jackdaw 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
• Magpie 1
• Rook 5
• Woodpigeon 4

Home thoughts

The back garden

It's a lot easier to see what's out in the garden now most of the leaves are fallen (and by the look of the weather forecast the rest will soon follow). The spadgers were out in force as per usual. They were busy on the new feeder, which gave a family of long-tailed tits the chance to get in on the fat blocks on the old feeder. The goldcrest was off like a shot into the conifers the moment I saw it. And a pair of goldfinches stayed up in the sycamore trees out of the way of the crowd.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 24
• Jackdaw 1
• Long-tailed Tit 5
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 1

The year list is 193, which is pretty good given the first quarter was under lockdown so I missed a lot of the usual Winter fare. Looking at my records I've given most of Greater Manchester a going over, particularly the Salford mosses and the Mersey Valley. I'm pretty sure I won't be hitting 200 this year but I wouldn't have bet on 150 at the beginning of April.

There's still scope for a few additions to the list. There's always the possibility of a white-fronted goose or a tundra bean goose on the marshes in Southport or on Martin Mere. I'll have to go over to West Kirby and try to connect with the brent geese on the Dee Estuary. I keep missing out on the local Caspian gulls, I may strike lucky yet. And I haven't lost hope of seeing one, other or more species of owl. So I might nudge even closer to200.

I won't be spending the weekend looking for the belted kingfisher on the Ribble but it has reminded me that Brockholes is on my list of sites that should be easy by public transport. If I do go over for a visit I won't be counting on adding the kingfisher to the year list.

Mosses

A twilit kestrel, Chat Moss

Seeing as how it was a bright, sunny November day I thought I'd have a wander over the mosses via Cutnook Lane. Arriving at the Trafford Centre I just missed the 100 bus to Irlam so I got the 126 to Astley and walked down from there. It turns out the walk through Astley Moss is much nicer from this direction: the sun's in your eyes a lot of the way but you get the tatty semi-industrial bit of Lower Green out of the way early.

Chickens and pheasants, Asrley Moss
(The chickens were the wilder element)

As ever there was a ridiculous number of pheasants in the fields on Astley Moss. And on the paths. And the road.

Along the length of Rindle Road up to the level crossing there were all the elements of a mixed tit flock in the hedgerows — great tits, blue tits, long-tailed tits, even goldcrests — but they never coalesced into a flock. A flock of a dozen stock doves fed in the field opposite Moss Bank Farm and the flock of fifty-odd chaffinches in the trees and hawthorns on the field margins included my first brambling of the year.

On Rindle Road

A big flock of woodpigeons studiously ignored a buzzard in the field by the level crossing.

At the corner by Rindle Farm a flock of pigeons was spooked by either a passing kestrel or a passing low-flying Piper Cherokee, it was difficult to see which caused the most commotion. Except they weren't pigeons. I had a look at the couple of birds that dwarfed the others and they were woodpigeons. The rest, at least a hundred and twenty of them, were collared doves. It took me a while to process this, I've never seen anything remotely like that number all in one place.

Collared doves, Chat Moss

A mistle thrush escorted me along the stretch to Astley Road. I had a chat with a lady who was refilling the feeders in her front garden. As we talked her front garden was full of long-tailed tits, great tits and spadgers. She confirmed where the local barn owls tend to hunt, it was good to know I've been looking in the right place even if I haven't seen them yet. And apparently I need to keep an eye out for little owls, too.

Chat Moss

Further down Astley Road seven lesser redpolls flew overhead in the direction of the trees by the railway line. A kestrel hovered over the field by Mosslands Farm, harassed by a couple of skylarks. There were a bunch of blackbirds and carrion crows in the field between the farmhouse and Twelve Yards Road.

Chat Moss

The sun had set by the time I started down Twelve Yards Road but the twilight was bright and clear. A buzzard perched on a telegraph pole was disturbed by a tractor which eventually joined the two ploughing the field by Cutnook Lane. A few woodpigeons and carrion crows flew about and there was the sound of chaffinches settling in for a night's kip in the hedgerow. I heard but couldn't see what I thought might be a barn owl (but not confidently enough to add it to the year list). While I was looking for it I found a merlin roosting in one of the maple trees in the hedge over by Larkhill House.

Cutnook Lane was pretty quiet except for dog walkers but a few blackbirds in the copse by the motorway bridge made up for it. I didn't have long to wait for the 100 bus to the Trafford Centre.

Looking West from Astley Road

Wyre

Redshank, Skipool Creek

It was a dreich sort of day and promised to get no better so it was a choice of going on a wild goose chase or wader watching. So I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and only made my mind up as the train approached Preston.

Skipool Creek

I stayed on the train up to Poulton-le-Fylde and set off walking for Skipool Creek. With the bypass roadworks on Amounderness Way getting to the very messy stage it's almost more difficult to cross the road than it is to pronounce it. There was a little egret feeding on the field by Thornton Lodge as I passed.

I turned onto Wyre Road and bumped into a mixed tit flock, mostly blue tits with a couple of pairs of great tits and a couple of goldfinches along for the ride. A couple of yards further along a redshank feeding in the mud by the first berthed boat saw me before I saw it and created a tremendous fuss. Absolutely nothing responded to its alarm calls, unless the dirty looks cast its way by half a dozen mallards in the creek counts.

Grey weather had turned to mizzle, which didn't help my efforts to identify the waders upriver by the road bridge. The waders on this side were redshanks and lapwings accompanied by black-headed gulls and a common gull.

House sparrow, Skipool Creek
(It makes a change, photographing someone else's spadgers)

The hedgerow between the car park and the sailing club was heaving with birds. Blackbirds, mistle thrushes and song thrushes feasted on sloes and haws, greenfinches were busy dismantling dog rose hips. I didn't notice the feeders hidden in the depths of the hedge until they were brought to my attention by blue tits and great tits. There were also a lot of sparrows rummaging about in the hawthorns and ivy, the house sparrows would occasionally come out and show themselves, the tree sparrows didn't get any further than sticking their heads out, seeing I was there and quickly retreating undercover. The coal tits and goldfinches stayed high in the trees.

Skipool Creek

The weather closed in and got nasty as I stood by the sailing club scanning the far bank of the river. The tide was high so there were over a hundred lapwings on the mud with a couple of dozen each of curlew and redshank and forty-odd herring gulls.

I'd stopped having fun so I got the 74 bus into Fleetwood, partly because it was there and it was dry, partly in the hopes that the weather might calm down by the time I got to Fleetwood. (Narrator: it didn't.)

Knott End from Fleetwood Dock

In Fleetwood I got a bag of chips from a chippy on Dock Road and walked down to the lifeboat station for a bit of seawatching. The high tide had brought a couple of hundred oystercatchers onto the mudbars by Knott End. A couple of dozen redshanks were identifiable in the gloom (made a lot easier when they flapped about) and half a dozen curlews were easy enough. A flock of about thirty dunlins were unidentifiable until they took flight and whirled round the oystercatchers. There were a lot of waders that were just unidentifiable shadows. The gulls were nearly all herring gulls.

The ticket I bought on the bus was good for all of Blackpool's buses and trams so after having the wind blowing the rain in my face for a while I decided it would be as well to jack it in for the day and get a tram into Blackpool. I rode the full length to Starr Gate and just caught the Preston train at Squires Gate (I'd significantly underestimated how long it takes to cross the road at the bottom of the Promenade).

Skipool Creek

A bloody horrible day with some decent birdwatching and moody, atmospheric scenery. There are worse things.

Woodland walk

Mallard, Old Warke Dam

It was a fairly grey and gloomy November day and I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. In the end I drifted over for a nosy round the local patch to see if that suggested anything.

Barton Clough

The park was fairly quiet, save for the magpies (I'd remembered to bring a bag of food this time). When I got there I thought that at last the Winter thrushes had arrived but it was just a couple of blackbirds being a bit overdramatic. I didn't bump into any robins or mixed tit flocks today but I didn't give the park the same effort this time. There wasn't a tit flock on the old cornfield either come to that, but there was consolation with a male bullfinch calling in the apple tree and a male chaffinch rummaging round in the oleaster bushes. And it was nice to see one of the rabbits again, it's been a while.

• Black-headed Gull 5 overhead
• Blackbird 10
• Blue Tit 2
• Bullfinch 1
• Carrion Crow 4
• Chaffinch 1
• Common Gull 5 overhead
• Feral Pigeon 15 overhead
• Goldfinch 20
• Great Tit 1
• Greenfinch 2
• Herring Gull 2 overhead
• Magpie 21
• Woodpigeon 2
• Wren 1

I went over to the Trafford Centre and got a bus into Monton and had a walk through to Worsley via the Roe Green Loopline and Worsley Woods.

Duke's Drive

As I set off from Duke's Drive I bumped into a big mixed tit flock in the trees by the path. I watched a dozen long-tailed tits bounce around in the tree tops with a similar number of blue tits, a couple of pairs of great tits and at least a couple of coal tits, with a nuthatch and some goldfinches in tow, walked a few yards down in the company of a couple of robins and a wren and there were another dozen long-tailed tits with some blue tits. It some became apparent that this was one flock moving down the path. I lost sight of them when they reached a patch of beech trees that were still carrying their leaves.

Grey squirrel, Duke's Drive

There were plenty of magpies bouncing round and there were more on the golf course beyond the trees on my right, together with at least three ring-necked parakeets. There was a sufficiency of squirrels about, too.

Roe Green Loopline information board on the platform of the old Worsley Station

Approaching Sindsley Brook there was another mixed tit flock, fair-sized but not quite as big as the one at the start of the walk. It struck me how few chaffinches there were given this was a walk through a beech wood. I didn't see much evidence of beech mast, either.

Through the tunnel under Worsley Road

There was more of the same, though fewer in number, once I passed through the tunnel under Worsley Road. I took the turning up the bank and over to Old Warke Dam.

Old Warke Dam

A jay by the old aviary easily out-shouted the mallards on the pond at Old Warke Dam despite their being joined by two big white domestic ducks. A pair of mute swans grunted at me then resumed feeding, the Canada geese couldn't be bothered even registering my presence. 

Tufted duck, Old Warke Dam

Female teal, Old Warke Dam

There was a handful of tufted ducks, all males for some reason. Anywhere I bump into tufted ducks and coots feeding together I'll look for gadwall and sure enough there were a couple of pairs over by the far bank. A dozen teal dozing deep under the willows by the near bank were easy to overlook.

Canada geese, Old Warke Dam

I took the short route through Worsley Woods over to Worsley Green. There were a few robins, dunnocks and wrens about the paths and a nuthatch foraging in one of the ash trees but the songscape was entirely ring-necked parakeets.

I headed for the bus stop on Barton Road, taking the little path that passes by the Packet House. The usual mallards were on the canal, less usual was the kingfisher that shot past from the Delph. How on earth a kingfisher manages to fish in the rust-brown soup that is this stretch of the Bridgewater Canal is beyond me.

Bridgewater Canal, Worsley

Pennines

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

There are times when I wonder why I don't do more birdwatching in the Rochdale area. Then there are times like today when I'm reminded why I used to hate that daily commute. Google Maps reckons you can get from my home to Watergrove Reservoir in about one and three quarter hours, but that's dependent on the cross-city connection working just right and reliable buses when you get to Rochdale. Which is why it was two and a half hours before I stepped off the 458 bus at Wardle Chapel and started walking up to Watergrove Reservoir.

I'd arrived at Rochdale Station with plenty of time for the bus so I walked down to the bus station via the Town Hall. There were plenty of magpies and jackdaws about by St. Chad's Church and a good few pigeons and black-headed gulls flying round the town centre. There were a lot of workmen on the Town Hall tower so there was no chance of a peregrine today. Nor was there anything on the river, until I got to the bus station where a flock of pigeons was bathing with some mallards and the local white geese tried to drown out the bus noises.

The 458 bus to Wardle, Hollingworth Lake and Littleborough runs every half hour. Except when it doesn't.

Watergrove Reservoir

I got to the car park at Watergrove Reservoir accompanied by jackdaws, blackbirds and starlings. It was a ridiculously beautiful November day and the stress of the journey in fell away within a few minutes.

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

I climbed the steps up to the reservoir edge and had a scan round. The most obvious thing to see was the half a dozen birders with scopes, which suggested that the red-throated diver that was on over the weekend had decided to hang around. Forty or so black-headed gulls loafing on the far bank were accompanied by a few common gulls and a lesser black-back. Out in the middle of the water a flock of a dozen wigeon were preening and dozing while three goosanders drifted out from the sailing club. I was scanning the water down from the goosanders when the red-throated diver bobbed up. In the twenty minutes I watched it it went under for five long dives but none of them looked successful. I've never seen one inland before, a definite treat.

Red-throated diver and goosanders, Watergrove Reservoir

Robin, Watergrove Reservoir

I carried on walking along the path by the reservoir. The hawthorn bushes were full of blackbirds and robins while there were bullfinches and chaffinches in the taller trees. I had a nosy round the plantation of memorial trees which had goldfinches and siskins bouncing round in the birches and alders.

Watergrove Reservoir

I was torn between carrying on round the reservoir then seeing how I got on with the buses at Wardle or having a hike to see if the buses were any more reliable in Whitworth. My knee had been aching badly on the way in so I decided to give it a bit of a workout with a walk up the bridleway that skirts round Dobbin Hill then down into Shore.

Along the bridleway from Watergrove

There wasn't a lot of birdlife up on the bridleway but that didn't matter much as it was a very pleasant walk in stonkingly beautiful scenery. 

Artistically-arranged saplings
(Tap for a closer look)

There's been some tree-planting going on up here which dismayed me at first until I got high up enough to see the pattern. And the beautiful thing is: there isn't a pattern. The trees were obviously laid out by an artist: here and there there were small groups of saplings, sometimes they were connected by strings of plantings that meandered and intertwined like braided streams over the dips and rises, sometimes not. And there were small, open spaces peppered about. Bravo to whoever was responsible.

Along the bridleway to Shore

A few carrion crows fed amongst the sheep while flocks of jackdaws flew overhead. Loud calls alerted me to a skein of fixty-six pink-footed geese flying South high overhead.

The bridleway to Shore

Walking down into Shore the bullocks grazing in a couple of fields were accompanied by more than a hundred and fifty black-headed gulls with a side garnish of rooks, jackdaws and woodpigeons.

On Halifax Road

I walked down into Littleborough and, on a whim, I got the 587 bus to Sowerby Bridge. It's the wrong time of year to be seeing much other than a few carrion crows on the tops, and there wasn't a lot to be seen on Blackstone Edge or Baitings reservoirs but the scenery's great in this weather and there was an excellent sunset on the way home.

The Pennines from the bridleway to Shore