Merseyside

Tufted ducks, Crosby Marine Lake

There are times when the BirdTrack app pisses me off no end and today it was particularly bad, which meant I spent rather a lot of time transcribing from my notebook once I was back home and it was back up and working. Usually the map function's continually crashing the app means it's time to do a reinstall, today it was a server connection problem which meant the reinstallation just made things worse. Anyway… it got working in the end so I have numbers and graphs and maps and things.

I thought I should make an effort to get some more waders onto the year list before the month was out so I headed over to Hightown. The tide was well on the ebb when I arrived at Hightown Dunes and there was a lot of waders out on the exposed mud. There was also some pretty lousy light and a strong, cold wind blowing in from the sea, both of which gave the binoculars and camera a bit of a challenge.

Curlews and a cormorant, Hightown

I made a start by sitting on one of the benches by the sailing club and having a good scan round. The large numbers of curlews were very conspicuous, the redshanks were fewer but noisier and generally closer to shore. A few mallards and shelduck dabbled in the river or loafed on the banks. It took me a while to get my eye in on the dunlins even though there were small groups of them just on the opposite bank of the river. And it took even longer to find a few bar-tailed godwits to add to the year list. There weren't many oystercatchers but I suspect a lot more of them were the dark objects out near the waterline.

Redshanks, curlews and dunlins, Hightown

Redshank and dunlin, Hightown

I took a walk round and walked down to the end of the little jetty to see if I was missing anything in the river. There were more mallards and redshanks and a few black-headed gulls but no additions to the wader tally 

A squall of rain coming in from the sea was my hint to move on. The plan was to go down to Waterloo and get the bus to Lunt Meadows. Unfortunately I just missed the train and with the revised timetable the next train would have me missing the bus by ten minutes. No matter, I could have a wander round Crosby Marine Lake.

First-Winter drake and duck goldeneye, Crosby Marine Lake

First-Winter drake and duck goldeneye, Crosby Marine Lake

There were a couple of cormorants by the side of the marine lake and a couple of great black-backs loafing on a raft out in the middle. A raft of half a dozen goldeneyes was doing a circuit of the lake and came quite close to shore. For all the head-bobbing that was going on both the drakes were first-Winter birds. The only adult drake goldeneye was on the little boating lake with the mallards and coots accepting meals from passing strangers.

Drake tufted duck, Crosby Marine Lake

Duck tufted duck, Crosby Marine Lake

A herd of a dozen mute swans was loafing at the shallow end of the boating lake in the company of a couple of dozen Canada geese. The water on the pool was so choppy that most of the coots were feeding on the grass with half a dozen black-tailed godwits but the tufted ducks seemed happy enough to bob along with the waves. One of the tufties made me look twice as she was one of those individuals where the white markings at the base of the bill are similar to those of a female scaup, making a very conspicuous white front to the forehead. Luckily, scaup and tufted ducks are completely different shapes so there's not a lot of scope for confusion seen as close as this. (Mind you, I have a nightmare that some day I'll see my first lesser scaup and I'll decide it's just a female tufty.)

There were plenty of gulls about, mostly black-headed. There were a couple of common gulls mingling with the crowds but just a couple of herring gulls on the boating lake and both of them young birds.

Crosby Marine Lake

There's a lot of work being done on the nature reserve at the moment so I decided to give staring through the fence a miss today.

I had ten minutes to wait for the next 133 bus and spent most of that time watching a sparrowhawk making repeated attempts on the flock of pigeons that circled overhead.

I didn't stop over at Lunt Meadows as planned as I wouldn't have much time to look round before having to head back to catch the next bus.The idea was to get to Kirkby, get the train to Wigan and have an hour's wander round Orrell Water Park. The idea was. The train timetable didn't allow it: I'd just miss the next train and there'd be the most part of two hours' wait for the next. So I got off at Maghull North and got the Ormskirk train thinking I could stop off at Rufford on the way to Preston from Ormskirk. What I didn't know was that a rail replacement bus was doing the Ormskirk to Preston run. I stayed on the bus: whatever time was on the timetable at Rufford wouldn't be the time for the next bus and I could do without the hassle.

A frustrating begining and end to the day's birdwatching but I got a couple of gentle strolls, saw forty-odd species of birds, added bar-tailed godwit to the year list and confirmed that the days are getting longer and I can sensibly consider visiting three sites in one day without being silly or skimping.

Mersey Valley

Cob Kiln Wood

I had a second go at the Big Garden Birdwatch but it wasn't until lunchtime I got a more representative sample of the usual visitors. I'll have to get some more bird food, after this weekend the cupboard is bare.

• Black-headed Gull 1
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Common Gull 1
• Dunnock 2
• Goldfinch 2
• House Sparrow 21
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Rook 2
• Starling 11
• Woodpigeon 1

I didn't want to spend the afternoon travelling about so I walked over to Cob Kiln Wood, I thought that with the recent dry weather there was a fighting chance of the muddy path being navigable without having to walk the usual tightrope.

Buzzard, Cob Kiln Wood

The buzzard I saw soaring high over the station might or might not have been one of the pair soaring high above the wood. As I walked into the wood I bumped into the first of many loosely-knit mixed tit flocks made up of a family of long-tailed tits with blue tits and great tits tagging along. A charm of goldfinches worked their way through the alders by the path, which was mostly only mildly muddy with a couple of easily avoidable nasty puddles. The larger silhouettes in the hawthorns turned out to be a pair of bullfinches and a redwing, I got better views of them once I turned the corner and got the sun out of my eyes. This soon stopped being a problem, it had quite clouded over when I reached the clearing.

Dogwoods in the clearing of Cob Kiln Wood

There were a few more redwings about and I could hear but not see a greenfinch calling from somewhere in the birch trees with a lot of goldfinches. Everything went quiet for a minute while a sparrowhawk passed by.

The walk to the river was busy with people and quiet with birds. A few robins and blackbirds fossicked in the undergrowth and a grey wagtail flew overhead.

Banky Lane

I joined Banky Lane and walked down to Banky Meadow. The trees along the stretch by the road were quiet of birds. It wasn't until I got to the fork in the path that I found the first blue tits and long-tailed tits. A couple of dabchicks hinneyed from somewhere deep in the reeds beyond the fence and a pair of ring-necked parakeets made a performance of flying around the treetops.

I had a look at the river  from the top of the bank. A couple of mallards swam upriver and some teal whistled from somewhere under the bankside willows.

It was a bit late for walking down through Carrington Moss so I walked into Ashton-on-Mersey and got the next bus, the 19 to Altrincham. I made the connection for the 247 to the Trafford Centre which goes round the houses but makes an easy connection with my bus home from Flixton. It gave me the opportunity to check out the flocks of black-headed gulls and rooks in the fields on Sinderland Road and a small flock of fieldfares over the corner of Moss Lane was a long-awaited addition to the year list.

Big Garden Birdwatch

As predicted, the spadgers misbehaved for the Big Garden Birdwatch. As not predicted, they didn't hide next door, they set up shop first thing and monopolised the feeders all day, barely even letting the starlings get a look in. It's the first time this year I've had less than ten species of birds in the garden.

• Blue Tit 2
• Collared Dove 2
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 23
• Jackdaw 1
• Starling 22
• Woodpigeon 3

I'll give it another go tomorrow, I think, and submit the best of two.

Nice to bump into a grey wagtail while I was waiting for a bus at the corner of Deansgate, It's been a while since I last saw one here, I was starting to worry they'd moved on.

Flixton

Jack Lane

I had a couple of hours' wander around what I'm still not used to calling Wellacre Country Park.

I got off the 256 on Irlam Road and walked down into Wellacre Wood. The trees by the road were full of starlings, the brambles were thick with house sparrows and blackbirds and the robins in the hawthorns were accompanied by a couple of mixed tit flocks, one of which was mostly great tits. I soon found out why all the birdlife was at this end of the woods: a tractor was flailing the hedges over on the other side. I spent the next hour trying, and failing, to avoid it.

This time of year I'd expect a few fieldfares in the horse paddocks but there wasn't so much of a sign of any today. All the woodpigeons were sitting in trees and the only pied wagtail was flying overhead. The hedge flailing probably spooked the lot.

Jack Lane

It's been so dry lately even the rough path to Jack Lane was down to a couple of puddles in the tractor wheel ruts. Luckily there was still enough water on the nature reserve for a couple of teal to be whistling in the reeds. I was trying to spot them when the tractor went by, spooking a snipe which flew up and over beyond the railway line. As I was watching this a Cetti's warbler decided to take exception to me, the first one I've bumped into here.

The mixed tit flock working its way through the wet woodland by the railway embankment included a couple of goldcrests.

Dutton's Pond

Dutton's Pond was fairly quiet, just half a dozen mallards and a couple of moorhens.

I nipped under the railway bridge onto Fly Ash Hill. Yet another mixed tit flock was bouncing round the trees by the bridge. A few yards on I could hear a churring in the undergrowth. I spotted the willow tit at the same time it noticed me. It jumped up into the branch by my head, gave me a hard stare, shouted an expletive I didn't know was in its vocabulary and flew off into the drowned willows.

Walking over the top I got into conversation with one of the dog walkers. "I keep looking for that bloody owl," he told me. "I hear it every night. I've heard it on the golf course. I still haven't seen the bloody thing." So it's not just me then.

I walked down to the mile road. There were a couple of mallards, a moorhen and a drake teal on the river and a few magpies and woodpigeons on the fields. Then off home for a pot of tea.

Mersey Valley

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

The morning's jobs being done and dusted, I had a cup of tea and set off for a walk, I've been being a bit lazy this week and my knees have been letting me know about it.

Despite its being a mild day for January there was a crowd of gulls on the school playing field: forty-odd black-headed gulls, a few common gulls and a mixed bunch of herring gulls of various ages.

Stretford Meadows

I walked past the allotments and over to Stretford Meadows. It had become a nice early March lunchtime and the hawthorn hedge at the end of Newcroft Road was full of long-tailed tits and great tits. The open meadows were relatively quiet, just a few magpies and reed buntings and the female kestrel, but the trees around the fringes were heaving with birds. There seemed to be a mixed tit flock every twenty yards and plenty of blackbirds, robins and dunnocks. A small charm of goldfinches in the trees by St. Matthews School included a few siskins, there was a noisy flock of siskins a little further down the path. I almost missed the small flock of redwings in the treetops, I only noticed them because I was trying to find where a great spotted woodpecker was calling from.

Stretford Meadows

There was more of the same as I walked along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees, with the added attraction of a flock of six bullfinches that flew into one of the big hawthorns by the path.

Stretford Ees was very quiet. It's obviously far too mild for stonechats to be Wintering down these parts.

Mallards, Sale Water Park

I carried on over to Sale Water Park where a herd of mute swans was loafing and dozing in the company of a few dozen black-headed gulls and some common gulls. Mallards, coots and a couple of pairs of gadwall fed by the reeds near the path.

Broad Ees Dole

The water was high on Broad Ees Dole. A dozen mallards make noises at passing dogs from the Teal Pool (there was just the one teal on the pool today, over in the reeds in the far side). The island on the main pool was mostly underwater, just enough dry land for a magpie to pick at the bones of a dead gull. A few coots and moorhens picked about on the water and a dabchick hinneyed from somewhere. And just the one heron today. I was just about to leave the hide when a kingfisher shot down the sluice and off into the trees.

There was a couple of cormorants with the crowd of Canada geese and mallards by the boathouse and a few herring gulls with the black-headed gulls. Further on, a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks was peppered with coots and gadwalls.

Ring-necked parakeet, Sale Water Park

I got a drink from the café and sat on the bench to see what was coming to the feeders, hoping for a willow tit or two. A couple of ring-necked parakeets had taken residence, jockeying for ownership of the bird table with a couple of squirrels so there'd probably be no chance of a willow tit today. It was interesting to watch the interplay between the parakeets and the squirrels: the parakeets would make a racket as they muscled in, they'd start feeding then they'd fly off in a panic as one of the squirrels leapt and landed with a thud on the bird table roof. This gave the crowd of great tits and blue tits the opportunity to jump in and at the sunflower feeders and fat balls until they'd be scattered by the returning parakeets. 

Bird feeding station, with parakeets, Sale Water Park

I was particularly surprised by just how effectively the long-tailed tits got their fair share: their usual strategy of pretending you're not there ruthlessly deployed by a dozen long-tailed tits can barge a ring-necked parakeet off a fat feeder. I watched them do the trick three times, each time surprised by how well it worked.

I noticed it had started raining, which explained why my cup of Oxo didn't seem to be getting any lower. I gave it another ten minutes then decided I wasn't going to add willow tit to the year list today. I wandered off through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat where the parakeets were noisily preparing for roost and my first grey wagtail of the year was feeding by the river.

Hardy Farm

The first hundred or so of the jackdaws were coming into roost as I walked over Hardy Farm and a fair racket they were making of it.

Home thoughts and will o'the wisps

A few errands cropped up that needed doing today so the planned excursion had to be postponed. Just as well, really, as after just two hours' sleep I don't think I would have been up to a long walk.

The spadgers and starlings were camped out in the back garden from daybreak. Which explains why I'm having to refill all the feeders every other day. This weekend's the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, whichever hour I select for it will be guaranteed to be a bird-free zone. I might decide not to select an hour beforehand, just wait for the crowd scene and set the clock ticking. They're bound to arrive some time during the weekend: they won't be sat sniggering in next door's ivy for two days when there's food to be had.

I always worry when I see a lone long-tailed tit in the garden so it came as a relief when another one eventually bounced in and started feeding in the rowan.

• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 1
• House Sparrow 27
• Long-tailed Tit 2
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 5
• Woodpigeon 6

I spent the afternoon mostly on buses on a shopping expedition cum wild goose chase ("In stock at this branch" according to a company's website doesn't always — and certainly didn't today — tally with what the staff on the ground can find in the stock room). This gave me the opportunity to notice that there's a lot more herring gulls than usual this Winter in urban Greater Manchester. They're usually easily outnumbered by lesser black-backs but this year they seem to be evenly matched, even in the city centre.

I was waiting for the bus home from Manchester by the Bridgewater Hall when I heard a call from one of the nearby rooves. My first thought was grey wagtail as they breed hereabouts but it was a most un-wagtail-like noise, a quiet squeaky bicycle wheel sort of a noise. It took me a couple of goes to twig that it was a black redstart, I don't hear them nearly often enough to identify them automatically. I've heard one singing just down the road from here a couple of times, I wonder if it's the same bird. And I wonder if it's a different bird to the one that's sometimes heard over in Tib Lane. I like the idea of black redstarts haunting the city centre rooftops like supernatural beings, offering only the occasional tantalising glimpse to unwary passersby before disappearing back into mystery.

Rochdale

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

Another dull grey day so I thought I'd take advantage of the flat light to try and get some photos of the red-throated diver on Watergrove Reservoir.

Peregrine, Rochdale Town Ha;;

I got the train to Rochdale and had twenty minutes to wait for the bus to Wardle so I had a nosy round the town centre. The male peregrine was perched on one of the spouts just above the clock face of the town hall, with the local pigeons blithely flying around oblivious to the threat. Down on the river, by the Regal Moon, a dipper was busy feeding around the rocks at the base of the bridge.

Dipper, Rochdale

Walking up to Watergrove Reservoir from Wardle I was struck by how many jackdaws there were on the chimney pots of the village. 

Steps up to the top of the dam

I wondered which would be the harder on the knees, walking up the long incline to the top of the dam or climbing the stairs. I decided to bite the bullet with the climb. 

Watergrove Reservoir

There had been a few black-headed gulls and common gulls in the fields on the walk in. There were a few more out on the reservoir: perhaps a dozen black-headed gulls loafing on the water near the water sports centre and half a dozen common gulls on the water. A couple of lesser black-backs sat on a couple of posts by the far bank and a pair of goosander swam in mid-water.

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

For a couple of minutes I thought that was the lot, then the diver bobbed up not far from the dam. It must have had a successful hunt underwater because it soon settled itself and spent the next quarter of an hour preening and putting a lot of effort into making sure all its head feathers were rubbed against the oil glands on its back.

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

Red-throated diver, Watergrove Reservoir

I toyed briefly with the idea of going over the tops to Whitworth or Shore but the visibility being as it was I wasn't comfortable with the idea of doing it without an Inverness Cape and deerstalker hat. Instead I followed the path down into Wardle than runs besides the reservoir overflow and meanders down to the bridge at Biggins. A mixed flock of blue tits, great tits, chaffinches and goldfinches were working their way through the trees with a coal tit and a bullfinch tagging along. The couple of jays I'd keep hearing while I was up on the dam were silently rummaging about in the young oak trees by the water treatment works.

Walking down to Wardle

I got the next bus from Wardle, which happened to be the 458 which goes by Hollingworth Lake. The visibility on the lake was markedly poorer than it was up on the reservoir so I stayed on the bus to Littleborough and made my way home.

Passing through Trafford Park there was a big passage of large gulls moving on to roost on the Ship Canal. A few hundred birds passed overhead in groups of between a dozen and eighty, mostly lesser black-backs with a few dozen herring gulls and a couple of great black-backs. There may have been a few more exotic creatures in there but at that height in this light I hadn't a chance.

I was glad of a hot cup of tea when I got home.

Martin Mere

Pintails

I needed a walk and the weather was promising grim but dry so it was high time I went for a stroll round Martin Mere.

I got off the train at New Lane and decided to go the long way round via the reedbed walk because I was very conscious that I've not got grey wagtail on the year list and there was always the chance of one on the sewage works by the station. And who knows, I might strike lucky and get fieldfare and chiffchaff ticked off while I was at it.

The hedge by the station was busy with robins, dunnocks and blackbirds but there didn't seem to be anything out on the leek field (not even many leeks). Over on the other side of the railway there was an abundance of black-headed gulls on the sewage works. I walked a bit further on to get a view of the filtration tanks where there were a couple of hundred starlings and dozens of pied wagtails but not grey wagtails. I spent a while checking to see if there were any water pipits, just in case. (There weren't.)

Birch trees by the sewage farm

There were a few stock doves feeding with the woodpigeons amongst the cabbages and a flock of linnets flew overhead from the bit of set-aside with the sunflowers and oilseed rape. A buzzard floated high over Langley's Brook and headed for Martin Mere.

I joined the top of the reedbed path just as a mixed flock of long-tailed tits and great tits bounced by. There were robins, dunnocks and blackbirds along the path and here and there a couple of blue tits or great tits would chase each other through the hawthorns. As I approached the Northern boundary of the sewage works it was difficult to hear much over the squabblings of starlings and black-headed gulls. There were plenty of reed buntings about and another family of long-tailed tits frolicked their way through the trees.

At this point I noticed a report of a Siberian chiffchaff hereabouts so I had a look at the details. According to the report it was just two minutes earlier and precisely where I was standing. I was puzzled by this as I literally hadn't seen anybody since I crossed over the railway line and passed the time of day with a dog walker and there had been nobody in sight ahead of me. And the only possessors of a rather sad, bullfinch-like call had been three rather sad bullfinches making the most of the last of the ash keys. I can only think whoever it was must have been using one of the paths reserved for Martin Mere staff and volunteers that disappear behind a hedgerow. I spent quarter of an hour along that stretch of patch, closely scanning the hedges (a chiffchaff of any flavour would be a year tick). Five minutes in I heard a call, a sad bullfinch-like, monosyllabic call but thinner than the bullfinches' and tailing off into nothing. A Siberian chiffchaff. Damned if I could see it, though. Enough for me to add it to the year list but not nearly enough for me to feel comfortable submitting it to the local Bird Recorder. I'll leave that to the gang of blokes I meet along the way to Martin Mere.

The field between Martin Mere and Marsh Moss Road was full of dumped carrots and woodpigeons studiously ignoring the dumped carrots. A little egret was along for the ride.

Once I was at Martin Mere I went straight to the Discovery Hide to see what was on the mere. There was a lot on, but a lot fewer whooper swans and greylags than on my last visit. They were more than compensated for by pintails, shelducks and pochards, with a couple of hundred wigeon on the far bank. A couple of marsh harriers were putting up murmurations of lapwings over in the reedbeds while a buzzard sat on a fencepost and watched the performance. A lone ruff amongst the lapwings was the only one of the day, which is a bit disappointing.

Whooper swan

Pintails

The drake pintails were doing a lot of head-bobbing and showing off to the ladies. The mallards seemed paired off already. I wasn't sure if the black-tailed godwits in front of the hide were courting or just squabbling but they made plenty of noise about it.

When the black-tailed godwits are too close for your camera lens to focus on them and you have to use your 'phone.

Black-tailed godwit

It turned out all the whoopers were scoffing spuds opposite the Hale Hide and the greylags were in the adjoining field. I notice there were a lot more tree sparrow nestboxes in the trees by the Raine's Observatory, I didn't see any tree sparrows here today.

Juvenile whooper swans

Looking out from the Ron Barker Hide there were a couple of hundred teal on the pools and a hundred or so wigeon grazing on the banks. I checked that all the drake teals had horizontal white stripes (they did) and none of the wigeons had green and straw yellow heads (they didn't). Five shovelers flew in to join the half a dozen shovelers mooching by the far reeds. Further out, a little egret flew out over the reeds and a great white egret made a distant cameo appearance flying over the sluice beyond the reeds.

Marsh harrier

Marsh harrier

There were a couple of marsh harriers about, one sat in a tree in the reeds and the other sitting in the reeds by the water. A couple more flew in and unsettled the ducks and flushed a brace of snipe, two more harriers floated about in the distance. I'm old enough to remember when marsh harriers were occasional Winter visitors here.

Marsh harrier

A heron flew low over, disturbing the teal which did a lot of whistling and took a while to settle back down again. The three male pheasants having a battle on the bank were disturbed by a passing stoat.

I wandered back, stopping to look in vain for tawny owls or bramblings. The light, which was never good all day, was starting to fade and the wind was getting a definite edge to it so I decided to call it quits and walk over to Burscough Bridge for the train home. There was a constant stream of black-headed gulls overhead going to roost on the mere. 

Pink-footed geese, Burscough

Once on Red Cat Lane I could hear a few hundred pink-footed geese a couple of fields away, out of sight except for a few minutes when they rose and wheeled about before settling back to feed.

One of those days where it feels like I've spent a long time not seeing anything but turn out to have sixty-odd species recorded in my notebook.

Oldham

Yellow-legged gull

Today's plan went awry at the outset so I ended up drifting over to have a wander round Alexandra Park in Oldham. The wood duck seems to have decided to spend the Winter and a Caspian gull has been visiting over the past few days and I thought that seeing one or the other would be worth the trip. And I wanted a better look at the park, too, as the last time I came it was quite late in the day so I didn't really explore the place. It turns out to be bigger than I thought and it's a nice walk round.

Walking down from the bus stop on Ashton Road I could see gulls wheeling round low over the park. A few black-headed gulls flew overhead and a herring gull whizzed by at rooftop height. 

Herons lurking on the heronry

There were perhaps a hundred and fifty black-headed gulls on the park, split evenly between the pools. They easily out-competed the mallards and Canada geese for the bird food being thrown by little kids. There were a couple of dozen tufted ducks about and a pair of goosanders, the drake on one pool and the duck on the other, but no sign of the wood duck. There were four herons about, at one stage they were all in the same tree poking about on last year's nests.

Drake goosander

Duck goosander

While the black-headed gulls were pretty much settled on the pools the few larger gulls that were about didn't tend to stay long. A common gull stayed long enough to steal food off a black-headed gull before flying off into the distance. A herring gull came in, had a splash about and a preen then headed off towards the town centre. 

Black-headed gulls and yellow-legged gull

A second-Winter (I think) yellow-legged gull came in a few times to feed but didn't stay more than a few minutes at a time before taking flight. This bird puzzled me a lot: at first I thought it was a herring gull with a big beak (of which there are many) but the darkness of the grey of the mantle seemed to be more than a trick of the light. Its head was a lot more heavily-streaked than I'd expect for a YLG and it didn't have the blocky, box-like head that would make me feel confident with the identification. The clincher came the second time it took flight and I got a good look at it for a couple of minutes. The extensively black primaries and secondaries (and especially the primary coverts) really jumped out and the clean black tail band contrasted with the pure white of the base of the tail and upper tail coverts. (And yes, I did still have to confirm the ID with my reference books when I got home.)

Yellow-legged gull

Yellow-legged gull

A chap wearing bins told me the Caspian gull had been around an hour or so earlier, stopping to preen before flying off towards the school on the other side of the road. I decided to have a walk round the park then come back and stake out the big pool where all the large gull action had been happening. It took half an hour's watching and even then it was a fluke as I happened to glance up and see the Caspian gull floating over the South end of the pool at treetop height and disappear over the trees across the road. I would really struggle with any Caspian gull that wasn't a first-Winter or an adult, luckily this bird was an adult: long-winged, long-necked, dark grey above and with a ridiculously long bill. Just as well, I didn't get much more than a minute's look at it.

 It seems like the more "odd" large gulls I see the less confident I am with their identification, I'm finding them more intimidating not less!

Alexandra Park

I walked back through the park and took a circuitous route home which gave me the opportunity to have a look at a couple of bits of semi-rural Oldham that I don't know while the jackdaws and woodpigeons went to roost.