Mersey Valley

Wren, Sale Water Park

I had all sorts of plans for today but after the second night's bad sleep in a row I didn't have the energy for the early start needed for today's adventure. I felt bad about it but then I gave myself a good talking to. The problem is that just lately I've been turning what should be a bit of exercise with interesting scenery and a bit of birdwatching into a job: something that has to be done rather than something to do. The targets I set myself — 200 species for the year, 100 per month — are there purely to get me off my backside and out for a bit of fresh air, not something I should be focussing and fretting about. I suspect I was triggered by the usual July doldrums hitting mid-June. (Interestingly, it looks like the usual late July passage migrations are starting early.)

So I had a pot of tea and a bit of a read then went for a stroll down to Stretford Meadows, through Stretford Ees and Sale Water Park and down to Priory Gardens before getting a bus back home.

The spadgers have been strangely absent from the back garden this past couple of days. I think they're coming in very early to top up then keeping undercover to avoid next door's builders. And there's not as much cover by the feeders as there was because I've made a start on cutting back on the rambling rose before it takes over the county. I've just been seeing a couple of the older male spadgers coming in for a few minutes and that's that. Oddly enough one of them was accompanied by a very young robin this morning.

Reed bunting, Stretford Meadows

I wandered over to Stretford Meadows, passing the allotments and their trio of singing blackbirds along the way. More blackbirds and a song thrush were singing in the car park at the top of Newcroft Road in the company of a pile of house sparrows and some goldfinches. Wrens, chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang in the trees by the path.

It's a bit unnerving how dry the paths on the meadows are at the moment. It doesn't seem to be affecting the flora too badly — the open spaces were a riot of vetches, clovers, medicks and buttercups and the thistle patches were in full bloom though the marsh thistles have mostly gone to seed. Last time I came the marsh orchids were starting to open, judging by the number of seed heads around I've missed a bumper bloom.

Stretford Meadows 

The warm sunny weather had coaxed the butterflies out of hiding, mostly ringlets and meadow browns skittering round in the grass with small tortoiseshells feeding on the thistles or sunning themselves on the paths. A few large whites and large skippers added a bit of variety.

There was plenty of birdlife about, not just the squadrons of woodpigeons passing overhead. Dunnocks, whitethroats and reed buntings sang in the bushes and bramble patches and families of magpies chased each other round the trees. A young kestrel called from somewhere near the cycle path but I couldn't see it. Nor could I see the lesser whitethroat calling from the bramble patch just near the top of the mound or the garden warbler singing by the cricket pitch.

Near the top of the rise I was bemused to find a pond I'd never seen before. A bit of investigation found it was being fed by a vigorous stream of water spewing out of one of the methane traps. I beat a retreat and headed off down the other side.

There were more chiffchaffs and blackbirds in the trees by the recycling plant. The trees along Kickety Brook were busy with wrens and titmice. Family parties of blue tits and great tits bounced around in the willows and hawthorns while a willow tit churred its displeasure at seeing me.

Large skipper and small tortoiseshell, Stretford Ees

The path was busy with cyclists so I followed the brook across Stretford Ees. There were more butterflies about, the meadow browns being outnumbered by gatekeepers. Reed buntings sang from the hawthorns, blackcaps from the trees by Turn Moss and a garden warbler sang from the trees by Stretford Cemetery.

The pool at the end of Kickety Brook baffles me because it's actually the start. The brook meanders westwards from here, joining with Ousel Brook and then the river just before Urmston Meadows. The baffling thing is this pool is literally ten feet away from the river. A heron and I pretended we didn't notice each other.

Heron, Stretford Ees

I walked downstream, crossed the bridge and had a wander round Sale Water Park. The trees were noisy with blackbirds, song thrushes and blackcaps (oddly, I didn't see or hear a ring-necked parakeet all day). The lake was noisy with black-headed gulls and young great crested grebes begging for food off their parents. There were a couple of families of coots and the herd of mute swans, which is nearly fifty strong now, was demanding food with menaces over by the watersports centre.

Broad Ees Dole was busy. A couple of dozen mallards loafed on the Teal Pool, most of them sheltering amongst the roots of the willows. The first thing that struck me from the hide were the seven herons loafing with the mallards and coots on the island. A couple of families of moorhens included very young chicks. The dabchicks were unusually self-effacing and it took me a while to find the youngsters being fed tiddlers in the reeds.

There were dragonflies about, mostly common blue damselflies with a few migrant hawkers zipping across the pool.

Herons, Broad Ees Dole

I walked down towards Cow Lane, the hedges busy with wrens, goldfinches and song thrushes, the lake busy with swans, coots and mallards. A southern hawker quartered the path in front of me (and yes, I did have to check to make sure I got the ID right). The bird feeders by the cafe were being contested by magpies and great tits, the great tits winning by strength of numbers 

I walked round the lake and across the bridge over the motorway and down into Priory Gardens. More blackbirds, song thrushes, blackcaps and great tits with a garden warbler singing in the hedge by the motorway. It struck me today that I'm starting to lose my ear for garden warblers again, it's taking me a minute or two to be sure I'm not hearing a blackcap. The difference is in the tone of the song — the structure can be unnervingly similar — the blackcaps having deep, rounded notes like a blackbird but more so while the garden warblers' song tends to be mostly harder notes that don't run into each other.

The Teal Pool, Broad Ees Dole