Local patch

Blackbird, Lostock Park

I haven't seen the male sparrowhawk for a while so it came as a surprise to see him barrelling through a blown fence panel and into the garden. Not as much as the surprise the sparrow he nearly caught had.

• Black-headed gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue tit 1
• Carrion crow 1
• Collared dove 2
• Dunnock 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great tit 2
• House sparrow19
• Jackdaw 1
• Long-tailed tit 1
• Magpie 1
• Rook 1
• Sparrowhawk 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 4

The collared doves in my back garden are as fed up of the weather as I am

It was surprisingly quiet on the school playing field, with fewer black-headed gulls than usual. After last night I was rather hoping for a South polar skua or an albatross or two.

• Black-headed gull 12
• Carrion crow 2
• Common gull 1
• Feral pigeon 1
• Herring gull 4
• Jackdaw 6
• Lesser black-backed gull 1
• Rook 2
• Woodpigeon 9

By half three in the afternoon the wind had calmed down to merely windy and the sun made an appearance. I decided to have a go at walking off some of the cabin fever. There was no point in going far: there's too much disruption on the roads and rail at the moment, hopefully most of the cleaning up will be finished tomorrow.

Lombardy poplars, Lostock Park

One of the Lombardy poplars in the park eas a casualty of the storm. There are still plenty to go along, planted the length of the footpath from Old Hall Road. A few blue tits and redwings bounced around in the treetops and a few robins sang from what little undergrowth there is left after someone had a giddy turn with a strimmer. A pair of mistle thrushes flew in without so much as a rattle and a song thrush was very inconspicuously feeding in an elder bush. Lots of magpies as per usual, most of them in a loose-knit gang getting up to mischief by the bowling green.

Barton Clough

At first glance there didn't seem to be much about on the old cornfield. Then I noticed how many greenfinches were coming in to roost in the bramble patches. It's a long time since I last saw them in double figures round here and it demonstrates, yet again, the value of "waste ground" and "scrub." They wouldn't be coming in to roost in an area strummed to the ground or cleared and planted with serried whips at two metre intervals. There were more redwings in the trees and a few blackbirds foraging in the undergrowth. A charm of goldfinches twittered away from the birches and alders by the industrial unit and headed off for somewhere by the canal.

• Black-headed gull 9 overhead
• Blackbird 4
• Blue tit 4
• Carrion crow 3
• Dunnock 1
• Feral pigeon 1
• Goldfinch 19
• Greenfinch 13
• Herring gull 1 overhead
• House sparrow 2
• Lesser black-backed gull 3 overhead
• Magpie 19
• Mistle thrush 3
• Redwing 20
• Robin 6
• Song thrush 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 8
• Wren 2

It was nice to get an hour's walk under my boots at last. And it was good to see so much still about this late in the afternoon.

Barton Clough

Just as I got home forty-two black-headed gulls rose up from the school field where they'd been having a pre-roost get together.