Local patch

Chiffchaff, Lostock Park

I didn't want to be wasting what looked like being the last of the nice weather for a while but we had no public transport today (Manchester Marathon) and I didn't want to bump into the crowds along the Mersey so I stuck to having a wander round the local patch while it's still there.

The old freight line forming the Northern boundary of the site

It felt fairly quiet but there really was plenty about, mostly doing a very good job of furtively rustling behind the emerging leaf cover. The blue tits and long-tailed tits were going about in pairs, most of the blue tits fussing about in the bushes along the old railway line, the long-tailed tits in the poplars next to the skateboarding pitch in the park. I was surprised by how many blackbirds and greenfinches were around. I was also surprised by the number of woodpigeons though perhaps I really shouldn't be given there are usually thirty-odd of them on the school playing field most afternoons.

The thick grove-to-be of young alders (if they survive that long) next to Parkway, which forms the Western boundary of the site 

Only the robins, wrens and chiffchaffs were singing. We seem to be down to two chiffchaffs, hopefully a latecomer will fill the vacancy. We'll soon be getting the blackcaps and whitethroats coming in, fingers crossed they'll be up to numbers.

• Blackbird 13
• Blue Tit 6
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chiffchaff 2
• Dunnock 4
• Feral Pigeon 10 overhead
• Goldfinch 9
• Great Tit 6
• Greenfinch 7
• House Sparrow 4
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 2
• Magpie 15
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 5
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 6
• Woodpigeon 24
• Wren 5

Looking East to the narrow end of the site.
All the trees save the elder on the left and the apple tree, furthest right, are "borrowed landscape."