Wellacre Country Park

Jay, Wellacre Wood

It was too warm, and I was too tired, to do overly much so I had a teatime wander round Wellacre Country Park just to keep my hand in.

Wellacre Wood was mostly quiet, a couple of blackcaps, a chiffchaff and some goldfinches being the most conspicuous birds in the trees. Coming out into the open fields the most conspicuous birds were the magpies and jays feeding in the grass, in contrast I had to look hard to find the woodpigeons and blackbirds. A ring-necked parakeet shouted the odds from the trees over by the pond.

Jay, Wellacre Wood

There were lots of warblers about on Jack Lane but it took a while to start seeing any of them. A couple of chiffchaffs and a blackcap sang from the willows and there were at least three singing reed warblers, plus a family quietly rummaging round in a patch of reedmace. A water rail broke the euphony and was soon joined by the squealing calls of young moorhens begging for food.

There seemed to have been a mass eruption of gatekeeper butterflies, they were everywhere. Half a dozen brown hawkers quartered Jack Lane accompanied by a couple of migrant hawkers. Oddly enough there were no dragonflies about on Dutton's Pond, possibly because every post had an angler fishing from it.

Gatekeeper, Jack Lane

It was too warm for a hike up Fly Ash Hill so I walked halfway up and skirted round the top of the mound, disturbing lots more gatekeepers along the way. A couple of whitethroats churred from hawthorn bushes and a chiffchaff stationed itself in a sycamore on one of the rises, the better to be heard.

Latticed heath, Fly Ash Hill 

River Mersey, Flixton Bridge 

I had a quick scan of the river from Flixton Bridge and found only a blackbird and a couple of woodpigeons this time. But it's always worth a look.