Flixton

Fly Ash Hill 

I thought I'd have a couple of hours' dawdle round Wellacre Country Park while the weather was fine. I got the 256 into Flixton, got off at Delamere School and walked down the little cut into Wellacre Wood.

I'd barely passed by the "Welcome to Wellacre Country Park" sign when I bumped into the first mixed tit flock of the afternoon. A couple of noisy great tits put me on the alert and soon I noticed I was surrounded by long-tailed tits. A great spotted woodpecker flew in and explored the upper reaches of the taller sycamores. I was making a bad fist of trying to get photos of the woodpecker and long-tailed tits when I noticed there were a couple of goldcrests and a nuthatch in the hawthorns beside me. Woodpigeons and carrion crows passed overhead, a few of them hung around in the treetops of the wood, while magpies and blackbirds foraged on the ground.

Wellacre Wood 

Wellacre Country Park 

The paths between the horse paddocks were icy so I paid a bit more attention to them than to the dozens of black-headed gulls squabbling over the water treatment works with a few herring gulls, lesser black-backs and numerous magpies and starlings.

I bumped into another mixed tit flock in Jack Lane, blue tits, great tits and goldcrests this time. The only waterbird around was a heron stalking the barely-thawed pond in the reedbed by the path. A small flock of fieldfares passed overhead on their way to roost by the lagoons on the other side of Fly Ash Hill.

Jack Lane 

Dutton's Pond was being kept mostly ice-free by the angling club's bubble machine. A dozen mallards dabbled around and half a dozen moorhens skittered about the edges. A noisy farmyard goose flew overhead and headed for the river.

The sun was setting as I wandered around Fly Ash Hill. Chaffinches were gathering to roost in the trees while blue tits, great tits and dunnocks were gathering in the depths of gorse bushes. Squadrons of rooks quietly headed for the trees by the riverside paddocks as dusk descended on us.

I looked in vain for any waterbirds on the river by Flixton Bridge. A great tit came over to check me out, we passed pleasantries and I headed for the bus home.

Fly Ash Hill