Mersey Valley

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

I had an errand to do in Wythenshawe so on the way back I decided to get off the tram at Sale Water Park and walk home.

Sale Water Park 

As I walked down Rifle Lane from the tram stop the trees were noisy with ring-necked parakeets and magpies. The feeders at the café were busy with great tits, a couple of blue tits and coal tits sidling in whenever the fat ball feeder was unoccupied. I considered lingering to see if a willow tit might turn up but it started raining and wisdom suggested I keep moving (I've been too wet too often this week).

There was a lot of activity on the lake, canoeists jostling for space with lunatic jet-ski enthusiasts. All the mallards congregated round the lake margins, the Canada geese on the car park and the mute swans on the carp fishermen's jetties. A dozen black-headed gulls kept trying to settle into a raft for a doze but kept being disturbed by the jet-skis. There were rather more black-headed gulls and a few lesser black-backs on the lighting stanchions along the motorway.

Broad Ees Dole 

Broad Ees Dole was very dry despite this week's rain. The pool by the hide was scarce more than a puddle, which didn't stop half a dozen gadwall and a couple of teal dabbling in it. A dozen mallards loafed with a couple of herons while coots, moorhens and magpies fossicked about in the mud. For once the Teal Pool lived up to its label with a dozen teal on there with a couple of pairs of mallard and a heron.

Teal, Broad Ees Dole

It was late teatime when I started walking through Stretford Ees and the ring-necked parakeets were coming in to roost. A mixed tit flock — more great tits and blue tits than long-tailed tits — bounced from the trees by the path over the tram lines and into the trees by Kickety Brook.

It was raining properly by the time I got to Hawthorn Lane so I decided to head into Stretford for the bus home rather than carry on across Stretford Meadows. Sunday bus timetables being as they are I walked home anyway. Mind you, I needed the exercise.

Heron, Broad Ees Dole