Manchester city centre

Sketch map: Manchester City Centre

Like all big cities there doesn't seem to be a lot of birdlife beyond pigeons in the city centre but you can be pleasantly surprised if you keep your eyes and ears open.

For the purposes of this guide the city centre is taken to be the area bound by the River Irwell, Great Ancoats Street and the Mancunian Way.

The first two things that strike you when you arrive in the city centre are the buildings and the building developments. There has been a constant churn of refurbishment, demolition and building anew over the past twenty five years and there's nothing to suggest anything will change anytime soon. This dynamic creates new, temporary, opportunities for birds and other wildlife, and takes others away just as quickly. There are a few small parks dotted about, the odd bit of wasteland, and two rivers and a canal complex that have mostly recovered from the industrial pollution of the past but are still in a vulnerable state. Pigeons, carrion crows and lesser black-backs are conspicuous features of the cityscape.

The Irwell, having taken a particularly sinuous route through Salford, suddenly takes a sharp turn by Manchester Cathedral then runs as close to a straight line as it manages for the whole of its course before flowing into the Manchester Ship Canal at Cornbrook, just south of Deansgate. In my lifetime the river has been officially dead, these days it's a lot healthier. This stretch of the river is a bit quiet of birdlife because the banks have been built on and the surroundings get busy with people. There's nearly always black-headed gulls and a few mallards about. Goosanders are common in Winter (they breed upstream in Salford), goldeneye occasionally drift downstream. And there's generally a cormorant or two hanging round the Water Street area. Any wagtails you see are as likely to be grey as pied, there's at least one breeding pair of grey wagtails in the Castlefield area. I've seen just the one kingfisher along here. 

Goosander

You can't see much of the river Medlock in the city centre, most of it has been built over or round, but it's home to grey wagtails. Just to the West of Piccadilly Station, around Helmet Street and in Pill Mill Brow on the other side of Great Ancoats Street you may sometimes see dippers, a surprise in such an unpromising area.

The canal basin at Castlefield is where you'll find most of the city's Canada geese, as well as a few mute swans. It's as well not to walk along the Rochdale Canal aporting a pair of binoculars and a camera. The walk out of the city centre down the Bridgewater Canal past Cornbrook to Salford Quays can be very rewarding, there's a large Winter gull roost on the quays which often attracts yellow-legged gulls and in Summer the remaining waste ground by the Ship Canal at Cornbrook is home to warblers, including lesser whitethroats.

Peregrines nest in the city centre though they've had to move around a bit due to redevelopment. The area around Victoria Station and Exchange Square is your best bet for a sighting. Other birds of prey are usually just passing through, more often than not at great height. A tawny owl used to hunt around the Chepstow Street area of Oxford Road, feeding on the rats and mice attracted by people being messy with their takeaways, but it's been a while since anyone's reported seeing or hearing it. I only saw it the once, while I was waiting for the last bus home.

The green spaces are all quite small and mostly just mown grass (Piccadilly Gardens hardly being that these days). Parsonage Gardens and St. John's Gardens, both between Deansgate and the river, are very small parks which act as oases for garden birds round here. Vimto Park, over by the university, looks unpromising, especially with the new building works at the North side, but has its moments. It's worth keeping an eye and ear out for Autumn migrants passing through. Most will be chiffchaffs and willow warblers, every so often a spotted flycatcher will make an appearance.

Although Piccadilly Gardens has lost its garden element there are still enough small trees to attract roosting goldfinches, possibly the same birds that bounce around the trees in St. Peter's Square. Back in the early nineties it was still possible to watch a murmuration of starlings wheeling around the bus station but they and the bus station are now but memories. The best pied wagtail roost is probably the one on St. Anne's Square though it's usually only double figures.

Black redstarts used to nest around the old warehouses and factories in what is now the Northern Quarter, the pair holding a territory at the top of Newton Street being very obliging to the birdwatcher. Redevelopment and gentrification have moved the redstarts on. These days there's at least one pair on the rooftops around the Town Hall. Actually seeing one is almost impossible unless you live or work in one of the buildings overlooking the area. Before the building work on the Town Hall you might have been lucky to see one perched on the roof. You've more chance of hearing a call or a brief snatch of song, though that depends on your being in the right place at the right time without a lot of background noise drowning it out. Utterly tantalising and frustrating, the best advice is to not go looking for them and just be surprised and delighted if you bump into one.

Beyond the city centre the birdwatching gets more rewarding. Walking upstream along the Irwell into Salford you'll find more waterbirds. There are small bits of rough woodland along the Medlock Valley. And the parks get a bit bigger and more fruitful.

You're not going to get a big tally of birds on a visit to Manchester city centre but it's worth keeping your eyes and ears open when you're there because you never know when you'll be lucky.