Urban birdwatching: Salford

Kestrel, Kersal Wetlands

After yesterday's débâcle I was feeling pretty demoralised. I had a couple of ideas for an outing for the day but decided I didn't want to put much trust in trains. It had snowed overnight and the snow, and a refilling of the bird feeders, brought the crowds into the back garden. Oddly enough, the crowds didn't include any blue tits or great tits, they must have sneaked in and out while I was feeding the cat. The school playing field was quiet, the gulls preferring the school buildings rooftops and leaving the field to the rooks, magpies and jackdaws.

I looked at the pavements and wondered if I really wanted to go out for a walk in the snow and slush. I decided I couldn't waste a bright, sunny day so I dragged myself out for the train to Irlam with a view to going for a snowy stroll over the mosses. As I was waiting for the train one of the local foxes strolled by and we passed the time of day.

In Irlam I walked down Astley Road in the slush. I only got as far as the end of Zinnia Street. The hundred yard stretch of road just beyond is always interesting and I make a point of allowing any passing motorist plenty of room to give them every chance of negotiating it. My photos cannot do it justice: imagine that each side of the road is a series of sine waves about three feet deep and ten feet long and that they're out of synch such that when the left side's going down the right side's going up and vice versa.  I shouldn't have been surprised that a lorry carrying palettes had slid into a ditch. I was a bit more surprised that the tractor that had come to pull it out had slid into the opposite ditch. As I arrived another tractor turned up to pull out the tractor. I gave it up, I'm not good at taking a hint but this was Fate slapping me in the face with a kipper. So I left the crowd of onlookers, spadgers and starlings and walked back for a bus back.

I got the 67, not sure whether to get off in Eccles for a bus to the Trafford Centre or stay on into Manchester and get a bus or train home. I noticed that the 66 to Heaton Park was due a couple of minutes after we'd be getting into Eccles bus station and it's been an age since I last had a wander there. The 66 arrived on time and we readied to get on but the driver told us we'd have to wait for the new driver to get on. Five minutes later he was back, explaining that he had to go and pick up the new driver from the depot. I'm not aware the bus ever came back. 

I gave it twenty minutes and got the next bus into Manchester, which happened to be a 10 which goes through Salford then up through Charlestown and Broughton then into Manchester. It happens to pass the Kersal Wetlands and on a whim I got off and had a wander, which turned out to be an excellent idea.

I got off at Castle Irwell and walked down the path along the river. The path was icy in parts but was mostly thawed and grittily muddy and there was enough grass at the sides to easily negotiate the nastiest stretches of ice. 

Kersal Wetlands looking North

The riverside path opens into the Kersal Wetlands on a peninsula on a bend of the Irwell. This open area is, essentially, a big bowl with a path around the rim containing two smaller bowls, one shallow and grassed, the other deeper with pools and tiny reedbeds. A path drops down from the rim and runs along the bank between the two. I kept to the rim path which seemed safest in these conditions. 

Kersal Wetlands, Manchester city centre in the background 

A small flock of chaffinches flitted about in the trees by the path while mallards and Canada geese floated down the river. A pair of dabchicks hinnied and danced around each other at the bankside. There was a crowd of carrion crows, a couple of dozen at least. There were also a few rooks, jackdaws and magpies about on the grass but they were outnumbered by the crows. I noticed a handful of goosanders drifting downstream, all redheads though one was obviously a first-Winter drake coming into his black and white body plumage. A kestrel flew over and hovered over the pathside until it was chased away by a couple of black-headed gulls. It came back a few times over the next quarter hour and was chased away each time.

Dabchicks, Kersal Wetlands

Kestrel, Kersal Wetlands

Black-headed gulls, Kersal Wetlands

The wetland was partly frozen, the free water in the pools was littered with a hundred or more black-headed gulls with handfuls of herring gulls and lesser black-backs and a few common gulls. There were a dozen each of coots and tufted ducks and a couple of mute swans and dabchicks. About a dozen herons were dotted about in the long grass on the little islands. I was surprised to hear a pair of ring-necked parakeets screeching in the trees on the other side of the river, I hadn't realised they'd spread this far.

Black-headed gulls with herring gulls, lesser black-backs, common gulls and magpies, Kersal Wetlands

Goldeneyes, Kersal Wetlands

I crossed the river into Lower Kersal. I didn't fancy the slope on the bridge in the way up, even less on the way down with bits of ice in the shadows but got over unscathed. A flock of eighteen goldeneyes drifted slowly down the river amidst lots of head-bobbing and squabbling amongst the drakes.

River Irwell, Manchester city centre in the background 

I walked over to Salford Sports Village and got the bus home. It had been a nice afternoon's walk in the end despite everything.