May

Little ringed plover, Marshside

Well…

May was a funny old month. It started off promising to carry on where a very productive April left off but soon the weather turned and by mid-May the birdwatching was in the doldrums with the Winter visitors mostly gone, the residents and early arrivals quietly getting on with the business of finding food for hungry mouths and the larger number of Summer visitors biding their time waiting for a turn in the weather then straggling through as best can. I'm not one for poring over weather charts at length so I've missed out on this Spring's white wagtails and consistently been in the right place at the wrong time for little gulls and wood sandpipers.

The change in the weather also affected insect life. April was busy with butterflies but the cooler weather in May hasn't done them any favours, my records are mostly limited to Pierids — whites, orange tips and brimstones — and not many of them. I'm not sure if the dragonflies were late or of I'm just being impatient but aside from a couple of days late in the month I've not seen them in any profusion.

Garganey, Crossens Marsh

Then to cap it all I get four lifers in the space of two weeks — spotted sandpiper, lesser yellowlegs, white-tailed lapwing and lesser scaup — and not a one of them on my radar till they turned up, which is a lot of the joy of the game.

I end the month with the year list at 182 and my British list at 287.

Twitch!

White-tailed lapwing, Bickershaw Country Park

Today's birdwatching involved a degree of planning and a year's supply of pure dumb luck.

I don't know why I've never visited Bickershaw Country Park before. It's been on my to-visit list for ages and I've gone past it umpteen times but it's taken the arrival of a white-tailed lapwing to get me going there. It's only five stops from Leigh on the number 8 bus and if it hadn't been pouring down I'd have walked it. I got off at Hulme Road and followed Google Maps' instructions to go past Firs Park. It took me three goes to find the entrance to the park from here, it's the little bit of grass by the tiny electricity substation.

Bickershaw Country Park

I followed a couple of rough paths through a mixture of open grassland and thin woods. The first warblers I heard were the willow warblers singing in the trees by the houses. They were joined by whitethroats in the bushes fringing the grassland, blackcaps in the woods, reed warblers and sedge warblers in the reeds and scrub by the pools and chiffchaffs in the big trees over on the other side of the lake.

I was negotiating a particularly treacherous bit of a path involving a wobbly stone, a slippery incline on muddy mine waste and a reed-fringed puddle when something astonishing flew overhead. It was shaped like a lapwing but patterned black and white like an avocet and with a sandy brown back. The white-tailed lapwing! I was in no position but to gawp as it flew off.

I carried on and eventually found an open space by a gap in the reeds overlooking a scrape. There were half a dozen birdwatchers standing there (I'd timed my visit to miss any rush of birders getting a look in before going to work). "Was that the lapwing that I saw flying off just now?" I asked. "If it was mostly black and white, yes," they said. "Stuff me," I said.

White-tailed lapwing, Bickershaw Country Park

I hadn't been stood standing there a minute when the lapwing flew back in. It stood in full view, not far away, and spent five minutes preening in the pouring rain. A very lovely bird, delicate-looking and mostly pastel shaded until the bird spread a wing to preen.

White-tailed lapwing, Bickershaw Country Park

White-tailed lapwing, Bickershaw Country Park

White-tailed lapwing, Bickershaw Country Park

I decided to move on, walking down the path to the car park. There were more warblers, swifts and sand martins hawked low overhead, and reed buntings sang in the bits of reeds and long grass bordering the trees. Out in the open grassland I could hear distant yellowhammers. A couple of small brown birds flitted about in the knee-high grass, I thought they were meadow pipits until one flew across the path; the back end was all wrong, there was a lot of it and the end of the tail was tapered and round. It's so rarely I get a proper view of a grasshopper warbler it isn't an instinctive ID for me.

Bickershaw Country Park
A sea of yellow rattle stopping the grass getting too rank

I got the number 8 into Wigan and took the train to Southport. I didn't have long to wait in the rain for the 44 to Marshside. The rain eased a little as I walked down Marshside Road from the bus stop and the house martins were making the most of it. I was surprised to see a pair of wigeons on the marsh with the Canada geese and lapwings.

I walked down to Sandgrounders to see if I could find the lesser scaup. It had been reported on Polly's Pool so I prepared myself for a long search in the mid-distance. A few mallards, avocets and coots fed in the pool immediately in front of the hide. Then a neat little duck swam up to say hello. Perhaps slightly smaller than a tufted duck, with a peaked head not unlike a ring-necked duck, and a finely-barred grey back. My first lesser scaup. A very different bird to an ordinary scaup (I still haven't seen one this year), not just because it was smaller, the proportions are different and it didn't have the heavy, low-slung back of a scaup. A rather uppity shelduck chased it off this pool, it landed in the big pool just to the right by the entrance path and took shelter in the company of Canada geese.

Lesser scaup, Marshside

Lesser scaup, Marshside

Lesser scaup, Marshside

Lesser scaup, Marshside

Little ringed plover, Marshside

This black-tailed godwit did a better job of supervising the mallard ducklings that the duck did

There was a fine supporting cast of waders. There were still a few black-tailed godwits feeding on the marsh and little ringed plovers feeding at the water margins. A mixed flock of about a dozen each of dunlins and ringed plovers flew in, loafed on a mud bank for five minutes then flew off over to Crossens Marsh. The avocets have young to look after and when they weren't chasing off gulls they were chasing off pied wagtails and little ringed plovers.

Bee orchid, Marshside

I found a bee orchid on the side of the path as I came in. I wouldn't have noticed it but it was near to a clump of early purple orchids that caught my eye. I looked for it again on my way back and would have missed it but for the early purple orchids acting as a marker. I wonder how many I've walked past in my time.

Early purple orchid, Marshside

I decided to head off home. On the train back the weather started to clear up and it stopped raining. Before the excitement of yesterday the plan for today was to have a wander round Martin Mere. It was still only mid-afternoon, I looked at the weather, I listened to the noise my joints were making. I could have an hour or so's wander and get some of stiffness walked out.

I looked at the weather, I listened to the noise my joints were making.

Dear reader, I stayed on the train.

Home thoughts

The back garden

The garden's becoming productive of more things than just horsetails, wood avens and goosegrass. The young starlings, having stripped the feeders of suet balls and fat blocks faster than I could replenish them, have joined their parents in their attempt to devastate the leatherjacket community in the playing field across the road. There are furtive hints in the rose bushes that the first young spadgers are abroad and making inroads on the sunflower seeds. The young great tits have been back and today, finally, the blue tits have brought a couple of youngsters in for a feed.

A few young rooks have arrived from God knows where, as far as I can determine the old crow's nest at the corner of the road has just been something for the local corvids to squabble over rather than use. The young rooks, being both very noisy and having no boundaries, have put the jackdaws' backs up no end. For the past few days there's been a mid-morning racket as the jackdaws see the rooks safely off "their" chimney pots and down onto the field.

Oddly enough the garden warbler in my garden and the blackcap down at the station have both gone quiet just as the robins have started singing again after a week of getting their breath back after what seems to have been an unsuccessful breeding season.

After yesterday's teatime visit to Marshside I was chagrined to hear that a lesser scaup had turned up there this morning. That would be a lifer for me but family commitments precluded my haring off for a twitch. A further complication was this afternoon's arrival of a white-tailed lapwing at Bickershaw just outside Leigh, a major rarity anywhere. I seriously laid down plans for an evening twitch then told myself not to be damned stupid: anything involving six buses on a Sunday evening is an invitation to stress out completely. If I'm lucky one, other or both wil be about tomorrow and I'll take the opportunity to completely knacker myself.

Merseyside bumper bundle

Black swan, Crosby Marine Lake

I thought I'd best put a bit of effort into the first reliably sunny day of the week so I got an old man's explorer ticket, got the train to Hunts Cross, bought an all areas Merseytravel Saveaway and set off for a day out.

Herring gulls, Crosby Marine Lake

First stop was Waterloo where I walked down to Crosby Marine Lake to see what was around. The answer was the usual suspects: rather a lot of herring gulls, a few black-headed gulls, the usual herd of mute swans, a few coots and mallards, a small raft of tufted ducks and the pair of black swans that have taken up residence on the boating pond. I still can't quite get over seeing little egrets on the lakeside here. It was quite busy with people, it being a sunny Saturday, so the songs of the skylarks were pretty much drowned out.

The tide was lowish on the beach and kids and dogs were taking full advantage of the space so there wasn't much about save for pigeons and carrion crows and small groups of herring gulls loafing at the timeline.

Black tern, Seaforth Nature Reserve
(Heavily-cropped record shot)

I peered through the fence into Seaforth Nature Reserve. There were a few linnets about on the grass with a couple of pairs of sleeping shelducks. More shelducks fed on the pool and a large flock of oystercatchers were roosting on one of the islands. Although there were a lot of herring gulls and black-headed gulls about most of the noise was coming from the common tern colony. I looked around for any other terns, thinking there might be some Sandwich terns about if nothing else. I was surprised to find a black tern dancing across my field of view. It showed very well, even at this distance. Anyone sat in the hide should have had cracking views. I eventually found just the one Sandwich tern flying about over near the docks.

The Cetti's warbler was still singing in the tiny nature reserve next to the sailing club. Its only warbler companion today was a single whitethroat singing from the willows.

Shelducks, Hightown

Hightown

I moved on to Hightown, walking down to the dunes to see if any waders were about. Given how low the tide was I wasn't overly surprised to find the only ones I found were a pair of ringed plovers. There were rather a lot of shelduck feeding on the mud in scattered pairs or small family groups. One distant pair of shelducks walking across the mud were chained together by fourteen ducklings.

Last port of call for the day was Crossens and Marshside, again to see what waders were about. (For all that I've had a couple of lifers this month I'm still missing a few of the usual waders I'd expect to see on passage this time of year).

Gadwall, black-headed gull, dunlin and ringed plover, Crossens Inner Marsh

I walked down from Crossens and started walking down the bund at the back of Crossens Inner Marsh. The first thing that struck me was the cloud of house martins and swifts feeding about the water treatment works.

There were the usual lapwings, oystercatchers and avocets on the marsh. The only small waders about were a dunlin and a ringed plover which seemed to be joined at the hip. The greylags and Canada geese had youngsters in tow.

Avocet, Crossens Inner Marsh

Marshside was much the same, with redshanks taking advantage of the thicker grass to nestle down in and a couple of shovelers in the pools. An incoming flock of starlings spooked a small flock of dunlins and they in turn spooked some redshanks and a handful of black-tailed godwits.

I checked the time and made for the bus back into Southport. For the first time in the past couple of months the Manchester-bound train actually got through into Manchester. I'd visited three quite different seaside environments and though I didn't wobble the year list and there weren't any huge crowd scenes there had been plenty enough about and I'd seen fifty-odd species of birds.

Hightown

Lazy day

The view from the train just after Drigg

It had been a vile start to the day but the weather forecast hinted that the further North you went the more chance of it brightening up in the afternoon so I got myself an old man's explorer ticket and headed North.

I had a vague idea of perhaps getting an hour in at Hodbarrow but looking at the afternoon train connections I couldn't get anything to work. The trains to Carlisle from Barrow set off just before the trains from Lancaster arrive, because of course they would. So there was fifty-odd minutes lost even before I started worrying about getting back home bearing in mind both the big gaps in Northern's schedule between Lancaster and Preston and the potential for cancellations due to lack of train staff. In the end I settled on a sightseeing trip by rail up as far as Seascale where I could wait the ten minutes for the train back and, connections willing, get back home just before ten. This allowed a few lightning sketches of the birdlife of three estuaries and the coastal pools at Leighton Moss and passed through miles of very agreeable scenery.

The train from Manchester to Barrow whizzes through most of Lancashire, sitting in Preston Station for twenty minutes at half time while the train sucks a slice of orange. Consequently, nearly all the birdwatching from the train is limited to corvids, gulls and pigeons. I only pick up the mallards in a trackside covey between Barnacre and Bilsborrow because years of accidentally catching sight of one has taught me they may be there. Similarly the swallows round the farms near Bilsborrow and Scorton and that moorhen on the pond just after we've gone through Newsham. Things picked up as the train started to wend its way more slowly beyond Carnforth.

It was low tide so there weren't many waders on the coastal pools at Leighton Moss and all but the avocets too distant to identify. Small groups of shelducks dabbled in the shallow pools, family groups of greylags grazed the banks and the black-headed gull colony was heaving as usual.

Going over the Kent at Arnside there were a few black-headed gulls and oystercatchers on the mud banks. Over on the other side there were more oystercatchers and shelducks on the salt marsh before Grange.

Approaching the Leven Estuary from Cark there wasn't a lot on the saltmarsh: the usual carrion crows and woodpigeons, a wheatear was a surprise. The most striking thing on the estuary were the groups of a dozen or more eiders loafing on the mud banks.

Barrow Park

The sun had come out at Ulverston and I had a while to kill at Barrow so I went on a short walk. There wasn't enough time for a stroll round Cavendish Dock, and from the train there didn't look to be a lot on the water anyway, so I took a turn around Barrow Park. It's a nicely laid-out traditional municipal park and a very pleasant walk. Jackdaws were everywhere, blackbirds and robins sang from every shrubbery and were joined by a song thrush and a garden warbler down by the bandstand. A few dozen herring gulls and lesser black-backs occupied the lake while families of greylags and Canada geese grazed the lawns.

Looking over the Duddon Estuary as we passed Askam Golf Club

I got the Carlisle train and we were very soon dawdling our way around the Duddon Estuary. More gulls, corvids, woodpigeons and blackbirds with the occasional pheasant, yellowhammer or flock of starlings in the fields. Passing over the river near Lady Hall there was another bunch of eiders loafing on the bank. As we left Millom and turned into the Irish Sea coast my first roe deer of the day bounced from the trackside and went running off towards Haverigg.

There were more oystercatchers and gulls on the river Esk near Ravensglass, together with redshanks, herons and reed buntings. (It really is a slow train along this stretch.)

I changed at Seascale, having eight minutes to walk round and change platforms. A wise move as the next train South after this one was cancelled. I sat facing inland on the way back to try and see what I'd missed on the way up.

There were flocks of herring gulls and black-headed gulls on the Esk above Ravensglass. All the way back home there were flocks of rooks and jackdaws, mostly less than a dozen a flock but some of the fields in North Lancashire had fifty or more birds in them. The osprey's nest at Green Road looked like there had been some refurbishment but I couldn't see any osprey about.

Crossing the Leven there were yet more eiders on the inland mud banks, together with more shelducks and a couple of teal. The last roe deer of the day stared at the train from a field a mile or so further on. There hadn't been many little egrets about, it seems they were all on the muddy inlets at Arnside.

There seemed to be a lot of herons in the fields between Arnside and Silverdale. Silverdale Station was unusually quiet. There were more black-headed gulls on the inland pools across the line from the Allen and Eric Morecambe hides together with a flock of fifty-odd black-tailed godwits.

All in all a very idle way of seeing fifty-two species of birds in a day. I'll have to have a rather more active weekend.

Marple

River Goyt, Brabyn's Park

A look at the weather forecast followed by a look at the day's scheduled train cancellations put today's plans on ice. The cancellations are down to a lack of train crew; now we've been told the pandemic's over and the public can dispense with even the most elementary precautions the poor devils are dropping like flies.

I was beset by fidgets over lunchtime so I went out to scope out a walk across Ludworth Moor that looked interesting. The intention was to get the train to Hazel Grove and get the 375 to Mellor to have a quick check of the terrain and make sure that what looked like a straightforward start really was. Unfortunately that train got cancelled too, so I got the train to Marple to pick it up there.

I had fifty minutes to wait for the next bus so I had a wander round Brabyn's Park to kill a bit of time. I've never had a proper look round here, usually just ten minutes or so between bus and train connections. I should pay it more respect: there's a couple of nice woodland walks around the edges of the open parkland and the Goyt happily burbles its way through from Marple Bridge.

Brabyn's Park

A moorhen fussing about on the lily pond by the entrance was joined by a heron. Given the lack of reaction any young moorhens were someplace else. As I walked up the path into the trees the chiffchaffs and blackbirds I could hear singing from the station were joined by song thrushes, blackcaps and robins. A handful of house martins swooped high over the parkland. As I crossed the Goyt to join the path to Compstall Road a grey wagtail was fly-catching by the riverside cottage.

Brabyn's Park

I hadn't intended going for a walk so was wearing my shoes, not boots, and my knees were reminding me that even though the boots are starting to fall apart they're much better at cushioning the impact of a steep inclined plane. I decided against walking back down for the Mellor bus. Walking down as far as the bottom of Glossop Road for the 394 to Glossop and picking up the train back to Manchester was an option but the bus was due in three minutes and it's a ten minute walk to the stop by the Windsor Castle. So I walked up Compstall Road to get the bus into Stockport.

Etherow Country Park

I had ten minutes' wait for the 384 from Compstall Village so I had half an hour's wander round the lake at Etherow Country Park to keep my knees honest. The rain had stopped but it was still pretty quiet of people, so most of the birds were relaxing by the paths except for the pigeons which descended en masse at the sight of anyone carrying a bag. There were a couple of pairs of mandarin ducks by the bank near the first bridge over the canal. The unpaired drakes that were about are starting to moult into their eclipse plumage, the long orange cheek feathers looking bedraggled and a couple having already lost the orange sails on their wings.

A mandarin duck on a stick

I hadn't missed anything by going for a walk: the lady at the bus stop told me the bus I'd missed hadn't turned up. I got the next 384 that arrived and got the bus home from Stockport. I'd had a bit of exercise, seen and heard more birds than intended and was still none the wiser about that walk over Ludworth Moor.

Old Moor

Black-headed gulls

There was a plan for today but that was comprehensively scuppered by my train into Manchester being stuck at signals for fifteen minutes while the train I was aiming to catch went on its way. So I decided to go off on an adventure to see if I could connect with the lesser yellowlegs at Old Moor in the Dearne Valley.

It turned out to be a straightforward journey — Manchester to Sheffield, an easy connection to Barnsley and though I just missed the hourly X20 that stops at the entrance to the reserve I found that the 22x which runs every ten minutes or so stops a ten minute walk away in Brampton. Unfortunately, between the initial screw-up and the problems I'd been having with the BirdTrack app all morning I was a tad wound up so finding it hard to actually get into the reserve almost had me thinking stuff this for a game of soldiers. Luckily the volunteer on the desk in the shop told how to get in from the visitor centre and I eventually simmered down and learned to enjoy a very good, if atrociously signposted, reserve.

Knoll Brook by the entrance to Old Moor

(The trick is to ignore the entrance immediately by the bus stop, it drops down to a path along Knoll Brook which is quite nice but doesn't seem to get you into the reserve, instead walk to the little road leading to the car park. Unlike me, ignore the barrier across the footway; I have a long-standing opinion that the green credentials of any conservation organisation should be measured by the experience of the pedestrian visitor. The entrance from the visitor centre was masked by the group of people watching the workmen building a new hut for receiving visitors.)

Anyway…

Shelducks, oystercatchers, cormorant, tufted ducks, gadwalls, mallard and a lesser yellowlegs (just to the right of the fence, honestly) 

Lesser black-back

I had a couple of hours' wander round. Reed warblers and sedge warblers sang from the reeds by a couple of small pools and a Cetti's warbler exploded in song from a patch of great willowherb by the path. The larger pools were littered with gadwalls, mallards and tufted ducks.

It had been raining when I arrived, this soon passed over and the bright cloudy weather brought out the butterflies and damselflies. Large whites and brimstones worked their way along the sides of the paths in the open areas while speckled woods chased each other through the trees. Most of the damselflies were common blue damsels, I bumped into a couple of blue-tailed damsels sunning themselves on a fence.

I popped my head into the Wath Hide, which was hosting the lesser yellowlegs. It was heaving, so had a look at a couple of the other hides and came back half an hour later when it was a lot quieter.

Old Moor

There was a large breeding colony of black-headed gulls at the Wader Scrape Hide, many with young. The adults kept busy chasing off carrion crows and lesser black-backs but the latter still made off with a couple of chicks while I was there. The avocets on the margins of the colony didn't seem to be nesting. There were a few pairs of pochards with the tufties. It came as a great surprise to me to realise the duck a coot chased out into the open was a female red-crested pochard.

Heavily-cropped record shot: lesser yellowlegs with gadwalls.

Tufted duck

I returned to the Wath Hide. It was a lot quieter so I managed to get a comfortable view of proceedings. A kind lady told me where the lesser yellowlegs had got to: it had moved over to the far bank where it was showing well but distantly (a bit too far for my camera and lens combination, sadly). It spent nearly all its time feeding at the water's edge, every so often it would be chased after for no apparent reason by one or other of the mallard ducklings loafing on the bank. Even from this distance I could see that it was a greenshank-like bird, slightly darker on the wings and slightly shorter billed. There was no question of confusing it for a greenshank: the bright mustard yellow legs jumped out a mile the same way they do on a lesser black-back or a buzzard. A lifer for me, and quite a neat little bird.

Ragged robin

As I was walking back a movement on the path ahead made me stop. The stoat put its dead mouse down and we started at each other for half a minute. Then the stoat literally shrugged, picked up the mouse and bounced off into the tall grass and away, probably to a litter of hungry kits.

Guelder rose

I made a point of thanking the lady in the shop again and apologised if I'd been tetchy, explaining the problems I'd had getting in. She showed me on a map how to follow the path along the brook under the main road and into Brampton, coming out near a bus stop for Barnsley. It turned out to be a very pleasant walk and I ended up not taking the turn off for the bus stop at Brampton, instead I followed it through Gypsy Marsh and got the bus from Wombwell.

Knoll Brook, Brampton

Walking by Gypsy Marsh

The trains home behaved themselves and despite a rocky start I'd ended up having a really good day's birdwatching.

Mersey Valley

Great crested grebe and chick, Chorlton Water Park

It had been a tough old night's sleep so I decided against an early start for a day out.

The garden warbler's still singing from somewhere deep in the sycamores on the railway embankment. This year's bird is a nice easy garden warbler to identify for once, this is a bird with a song entirely unlike a blackcap once you get your ear in at the beginning of the season. I've been seeing the pair of great tits in the garden over the weekend, today I finally spotted a couple of youngsters with them. Oddly enough I've still not seen any baby spadgers though there are quite a few occupied nests along the road.

Across the road the gulls have started returning for school lunch breaks. Last week they were nearly all lesser black-backs, probably some of the ones breeding on the flat roofs of the factories in Trafford Park, and a couple of herring gulls. They've been joined this week by a handful of black-headed gulls.

I set off for the lunchtime train into Manchester for today's planned walk. Unfortunately the lunchtime train was cancelled in today's Monday meltdown.

So I scrubbed that and got the bus into Chorlton then walked down onto Hardy Farm where there were magpies and blackbirds aplenty but none of the expected whitethroats in the hawthorns until I got to Jackson's Boat. And for the first time in years there weren't any ring-necked parakeets about Jackson's Boat (the bridge being closed surely being just a coincidence).

Things picked up once I started walking up the river to Chorlton Water Park. A couple of chiffchaffs and a whitethroat sang from the bushes by the tram bridge and there were a couple of blackcaps in the hedgerows by the golf course. Swallows fed low over the river and occasionally dipped down for a drink. Families of Canada geese and mallards loafed and fed close to the banks, the parents keeping an eye out for overexcited spaniels and the like. A heron flew overhead and a buzzard flew over Sale Golf Course.

I reached the stretch opposite the electricity substation where a willow warbler was singing in the trees. A couple of dozen house martins flew in and started feeding over the river, mostly way overhead and never lower than the level of the top bank I was walking on. Two or three sand martins joined in just to make life confusing while half a dozen swifts hawked quite high overhead. I honestly couldn't work out why this short stretch of water was such a honeypot, there didn't seem to be any more insects about than there had been further down.

Whitethroat, Barlow Tip

Barlow Tip was busy with small birds. Chiffchaffs, chaffinches and blackcaps sang in the trees with a couple of blackbirds and a song thrush. There were half a dozen whitethroats scattered about in the hawthorn scrub.

Barlow Tip

Chorlton Water Park was oddly quiet. Even the couple of parakeets that flew overhead were quiet. The usual Canada geese, coots and mute swans were around but there were just a handful of mallards and one pair of tufted ducks. The great crested grebes had a couple of youngsters, each of the adults having one in tow with them.

Reed warbler, Chorlton Water Park

There's a tiny scrap of reeds at the Eastern end of the lake, which turns out to be not so tiny it couldn't hold a singing reed warbler.

As I crossed over the river to Kenworthy Woods a grey wagtail was fly-catching from the bank under the bridge.

Horse chestnut, Kenworthy Woods

Kenworthy Woods was heaving with singing blackbirds and song thrushes and it was quite hard to hear much else over the noise. I spent the best part of an hour aimlessly wandering round to see what was about. There were plenty of wrens, robins and chiffchaffs trying to make themselves heard over the thrushes. A male bullfinch was an elusive patch of red moving through the greenery while a family of long-tailed tits came over to have a look at me. I tried and failed to spot the great spotted woodpecker that took exception to me and I didn't even try to find the pheasant that was calling from the other side of a bamboo thicket.

Kenworthy Woods

I walked through under the motorway and got the 103 bus into Manchester and made my way home. When I got home there were sixty-odd woodpigeons feeding on the school playing fields including a couple of youngsters looking dark and scrawny compared to the well-padded adults.