Flixton

Grey wagtail, Flixton Bridge

I decided I needed a couple of hours' exercise so I got the 256 into Flixton and had a wander round Wellacre Country Park. It was a bright, if cloudy, afternoon with a fair wind blowing in from the West.

Wellacre Wood

There were family parties of blue tits and long-tailed tits bouncing round in the trees and bushes at the entrance to Wellacre Wood. The sound of the wind in the trees all but drowned the songs of the chiffchaffs and blackcaps, the blackbirds and a song thrush managed to make themselves heard.

A couple of house martins caught my eye as they flew around over Irlam Locks. Scanning round I could see there was a flock of nearly a hundred sand martins whizzing round between the stables and the water treatment works, a couple of swallows hawked around the stables.

Lesser stitchwort, Wellacre Country Park

The field by Jack Lane was awash with lesser stitchwort. I can't remember noticing that this has a scent before but the field fair reeked of honey.

The wind was doing such a number on the reedbeds that most of the small birds were keeping their heads down. A chiffchaff sang from a stand of willows and a reed bunting from the shelter of a hawthorn bush. I've often heard water rails here but never seen one, today I struck lucky: I couldn't see the adult that was squealing from the reeds but I could see the very young chick scuttling about in the fringes. I've never seen a water rail chick before, it looked like a moorhen chick without the tiny shield above its beak. It quickly disappeared into the depths after its parent.

Dutton's Pond

This moorhen chick insisted on pecking my boot
Dutton's Pond

There was a profusion of very young moorhen chicks on Dutton's Pond, most of them taking more notice of what the mallards were up to rather than shadowing their parents. They've certainly learned how to beg for food off humans, I had to ask one of them to stop pecking my boot to get my attention. I think there are two moorhen families on here at the moment, one of which is on its second brood having raised one youngster to nearly full size. I was hoping to see a few dragonflies today but no joy and the wind had kept all but the speckled wood butterflies under shelter.

Moorhen chick, Dutton's Pond

The wind had calmed down a bit by the time I started wandering round Fly Ash Hill. The willows by the railway line were busy with small birds: young families of blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits and blackcaps and chiffchaffs, wrens and robins foraging for nestlings. Out in the open areas whitethroats and greenfinches sang from the tops of hawthorn bushes while a couple of house martins and a swallow hawked at treetop height.

I walked down to Flixton Bridge to have a look to see if anything was on the river. It was very quiet. I'd just concluded that the only thing on offer was a dark shape that dived underwater on the bend by the garden centre (either a dabchick or a drowning rat) when a grey wagtail flew up, landed on the telegraph wire over the river and started singing.

A fairly quiet Sunday afternoon toddle around but I'd seen something new in the process.