Mersey Valley

Nuthatch, Kickety Brook

After my comments about the lack of warblers in the garden a blackcap joined this morning's dawn chorus.

Stretford Meadows

I decided on an afternoon wander across Stretford Meadows while the weather was fine. A testament to the current dry spell is the state of the path onto the meadows from Newcroft Road: concrete-hard and rutted and with just the one tiny puddle on it. Even the path over by the cricket pitch that ends in a perpetual puddle was merely mud.

Buzzard, Stretford Meadows

Chiffchaffs, great tits and goldfinches sang in the trees by Newcroft Garden Centre and a wren sang from the depths of the undergrowth by the little brook. As I joined the path the local buzzard launched itself from the top of one of the hawthorn bushes on the rise and lazily floated off towards Stretford town centre. The usual female kestrel was perched in a young ash tree by the cricket pitch, there was no sign of her mate today.

Kestrel, Stretford Meadows

On a whim I crossed over the motorway and followed Kickety Brook into the local nature reserve. There were more singing chiffchaffs and there were a few blackcaps singing from the willow scrub by the path. 

Butterbur, Kickety Brook

A pair of ring-necked parakeets fussed about one of the larger willows, accompanied by a pair of nuthatches, not a combination I would have predicted. A male great spotted woodpecker joined the happy band before moving on to feed in a clump of birch saplings.

Ring-necked parakeet, Kickety Brook

There was a lot of noise from the rookery at the end of Bradley Lane. At first I thought there was nothing on the river but walking along a bit there were about a dozen mallards, one of the ducks having ten ducklings to worry about. A buzzard floated over in the direction of Banky Meadow.

I walked back home via Cob Kiln Wood. The long-tailed tits were fussing about their usual brambles. Chiffchaffs, chaffinches and a song thrush sang in the trees, wrens, robins and a blackcap in the undergrowth. A mistle thrush flew down from the electricity pylons the better to make sure I wasn't a problem.

Walking back down Bradfield Road past the allotments a herring gull and a lesser black-back flew overhead. It struck me that I'm still seeing plenty of herring gulls locally, I wonder if they're starting to spend their summers here like the lesser black-backs do.