Mersey Valley

Ring-necked parakeet, Sale Water Park

It was once of those clammy days that make you think of ill health and decay so I decided I'd best try and walk the mood off. So once me and the cat had been fed (not in that order) and I made sure there was something other than empty feeders for the twenty-something spadgers barracking from the shrubbery I set off for a walk around the Mersey Valley.

Ivy Green

I got the 84a bus into Chorlton and got off at The Bowling Green and walked through into Ivy Green. I'd barely taken two steps into the mud before the first of what would be an afternoon's rolling cacophony of parakeets whirled around the tops of the ash trees. There were a few robins and blackbirds about and at least one mixed tit flock, mostly great tits, made its way through some young sycamores a bit away from the path.

Chorlton Brook

There were a couple of mallards on Chorlton Brook when I crossed over into Chorlton Ees. The woods were noisy with magpies, carrion crows and parakeets and a couple of jays could barely make themselves heard. 

Chorlton Ees

Walking along that enigmatic hundred yards of disused canal I bumped into a small party of blue tits and a great spotted woodpecker but otherwise it was pretty quiet along this stretch.

Jelly ear fungus (used to be called Jew's ear fungus), Chorlton Ees

Robin, Chorlton Ees

I emerged onto the river at Hardy Farm. It was all go here: long-tailed tits and goldfinches fed in the alders, a family of greenfinches were pulling rose hips to pieces, chaffinches and dunnocks foraged in the elder bushes and a pair of bullfinches disappeared into a bramble patch. A couple of parakeets and some magpies were having a shouting match in the big trees. While all this was going on a herring gull flew low overhead with a big piece of food which a black-headed gull successfully stole from it.

There were a couple of moorhens with the mallards on the river at Jackson's Boat for a change. The car park parakeets were heard but not seen.

It was fairly quiet on Sale Ees. A mixed tit flock disturbed a jay, which is a nice turnaround of events, and a buzzard quietly floated off towards the river from the cover of the undergrowth.

Willow tit, Sale Water Park

There was a full bag on the feeders by the café at Sale Water Park. A couple of willow tits ignored the usual pecking order and barged coal tits, blue tits and even great tits off the feeders. The nuthatches were a bit stand-offish because the bird table was full of squirrel. A little further on a couple of parakeets screeched as they fed on ash tree keys at head height.

Great tit and willow tit, Sale Water Park

There were the usual Canada geese, mute swans and mallards on the water park, together with a few dozen each of coot and gadwall. The flock of a hundred-plus black-headed gulls included a couple of herring gulls and a common gull. They were all congregated in one half of the lake, the other half was busy with water-skiers.

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

Broad Ees Dole was quiet, just three herons, four shovelers and the family of dabchicks on the pool by the hide. A pair of mallards on the teal pool were dead obvious, the handful of teals lurking in the roots of the drowned willows were trickier.

Broad Ees Dole

I had a chat with a passing birder. He said he was planning to go and see the snow bunting at Leasowe tomorrow so I told him where to look if it's still where I nearly trod on it.

River Mersey and Stretford Ees

There were more parakeets coming in to roost on Stretford Ees. The last mixed tit flock of the afternoon bounced its way through the birch trees along the path by the tram line.

I walked back into Stretford and got the bus home for a well-earned cup of tea.