Mersey Valley

Gadwall, Sale Water Park

It was another dreary day and I was feeling knackered after a few nights' fairly atrocious sleep (my own fault, I tweaked a nerve in my shoulder on the bus the other day, I'm at an age where I'm not as mechanically sound as my boots). 

There was consolation in the birdlife in the back garden, the mild weather after last night's rain seemed to have brought everything out. All except the spadgers, they drifted in in ones and twos and didn't linger. This gave the blue tits, coal tits and great tits the time to linger, and linger they did. They spent all morning either in the rambling rose in the company of the dunnocks or in the hazel bush in the company of a few long-tailed tits. A couple of goldfinches drifted by but didn't stop once they'd had a quick hit at the sunflower seeds. A greenfinch that had been tagging along with them didn't leave the sycamores on the embankment. When I first moved here they were regulars, last year I just had the one visit. A nice surprise was half a dozen redwings in the sycamores with the pair of mistle thrushes that have been flitting between the school playing field and Moss Park this past few days.

There were "only" fifty-odd black-headed gulls on the school playing field today, together with half a dozen herring gulls.

I dragged myself out for a walk to get some exercise and fresh air. Walking down to Stretford Meadows it struck me that you'd never know the woodpigeons were absent without leave in November.

Not today, thank you

At Stretford Meadows I kept to the Transpennine Trail, the footpaths onto the tip were a bit too interesting for comfort. The hedgerows were heaving with blackbirds, robins and great tits. Goldfinches and dunnocks flitted about the trees on the edge of the meadow while carrion crows and magpies bounced about in the open. There was a steady stream of woodpigeons and black-headed gulls overhead.

Walking along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees I was aware of lots of small birds quietly going about their business in the trees and hedgerows. A family of long-tailed tits passed by a loose collection of blue tits, great tits and chaffinches. A great spotted woodpecker was uncharacteristically silent as it watched me go by, unlike a pair of ring-necked parakeets. Goldfinches, robins, blackbirds and a bullfinch fossicked about in the hawthorn bushes by the path while magpies rattled and squabbled in the treetops.

Stretford Ees

I kept to the main path on Stretford Ees, the others were a bit damp. For once there weren't any titmice in the trees but there were bullfinches and redwings.

There were a couple of hundred black-headed gulls on the lake at Sale Water Park together with a dozen or so lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls and common gulls. It was a relief to see that at least half the mute swans survived the avian flu outbreak though there was just a handful of Canada geese. 

Teal and mallard, Broad Ees Dole
I sometimes wonder if other waterfowl object to mallards' blowing their cover away quite so comprehensively.

The teal pool on Broad Ees Dole was well-stocked with teal though you could have missed them dozing in the willows were it not for the bright red feet of the mallards sleeping with them. There wasn't a huge variety on the hide pool: half a dozen herons, a couple of dozen magpies and a few coot. All the dabchicks were on the main lake, fishing around the margins of the reedbeds with the coots and great crested grebes. I swapped urban myths about the origins of the local parakeets with a bloke who'd stopped by the hide for a smoke and a cup of coffee.

Lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

I walked along the lakeside to Cow Lane. It felt strange to see that gadwalls outnumbered mute swans and Canada geese in the crowds by the slipway cadging from passersby. This isn't a complaint, I'm very fond of gadwalls. It was good to see a raft of a couple of dozen tufties keeping some coots and gadwall company a bit further along.

The café was closed so I couldn't have the cup of tea I promised myself. The feeders were very busy, fifteen or sixteen long-tailed tits crowded out the blue tits and great tits and, unusually, stayed for over quarter of an hour. I had no joy with willow tits today, though. I was joined by a chap who got talking and we discussed parakeets, woodcock, Cetti's warblers and lesser redpolls. 

It was dusk when I walked through Sale Ees and a couple of hundred jackdaws were coming in to roost amidst a cacophony of chaks and chaws. About a hundred were settling in the trees on Chorlton Golf Course on the other side of the river. As I walked through Hardy Farm into Chorlton to get my bus I could compare and contrast the songs of a mistle thrush over by the brook with a song thrush on the golf course.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a dreary afternoon.