Stretford

An astonishing turn in the weather from 3°C yesterday afternoon to 13°C this morning was reflected by the birds. The action on the feeders was less frenetic, the spadgers coming in in sixes and sevens rather than two dozen at a time. Over on the school playing field there were thirty-nine black-headed gulls with the seven herring gulls and two lesser black-backs and just the one common gull.

I had a mid-afternoon appointment and my plan had been to go for a walk beforehand but the aches and pains I didn't have after yesterday's slip on the ice came to visit today. There are no breaks or bruises, I think it's just that soreness caused by all the muscles going stiff in reaction to a slip. Walking stiffly is actually the worst thing to do on ice but there are times when instinct trumps reason.

I had a nosy in a couple of local parks on my way home. They were both fairly quiet as the small birds quietly foraged and fed under cover and prepared for roost. In Victoria Park a couple of robins were rehearsing their songs, something that was lacking during the coldest of last week's weather, while a couple of pairs of blackbirds very noisily disputed ownership of a bare ornamental cherry. Moss Park was quieter yet, a few spadgers and blackbirds and a cormorant flying overhead towards the river. The twenty-odd black-headed gulls flying over Humphrey Park Station were heading in the opposite direction to the gull roost on Salford Quays.