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.