Mersey Valley

Bramble, Banky Lane

Everybody was showing their snowscape photos and after last night's howling winds we were having a warm and sunny Spring day. The new boots were being delivered this morning so I waited until they arrived before going out for a lunchtime stroll. Rather than having one last hurrah for the old boots I'll give them a gentle retirement working in the garden. I decided to give the new ones a christening with a walk through Cob Kiln Wood and Banky Meadow, long enough for me and the boots to get used to each other.

Goldfinch, Cob Kiln Wood 

Cob Kiln Wood was a hive of activity. I'd only stepped in from Torbay Road when I bumped into the first goldcrest and half a dozen goldfinches in a tree full of woodpigeons. Fifty yards down, at the little bridge over Old Eeas Brook, another flock of goldfinches were in the alders with a few siskins. I tried and failed to manoeuvre myself between the sun and the birds to get a few photos, defeated by topography and fidgeting finches. The paths were reassuringly muddy — we really have needed the rain — but not atrociously so. I did need to bear in mind that there was a relatively thin layer of mud over still concrete hard ground so I didn't misjudge my step in my new boots and go aquaplaning.

Siskin, Cob Kiln Wood 

Goldfinches, robins and a mistle thrush sang; blackbirds, robins and dunnocks rummaged in the undergrowth; chaffinches and redwings quietly went about their business while a couple of wrens loudly took exception to my passing by. The hawthorn buds are breaking, making it harder to see where the soft calls of bullfinches were coming from.

Cob Kiln Wood
The entrance to the clearing 

Cob Kiln Wood
The dogwood patch in the centre of the clearing

I walked down to the river. The trees along the path were fairly quiet, just a few woodpigeons clattering about in the tops and a party of long-tailed tits passing by.

The river was running fast under the bridge and aside from a flock of pigeons taking a drink by the side the only birds about were a mallard hugging the bank on the Lancashire side and a kestrel heading for the gold course.

Long-tailed tit, Banky Meadow 

Banky Lane seemed quiet at first, it took me a while to filter out the noise from the Carrington Spur Road. Robins and long-tailed tits abounded, wrens chased each other round the brambles and crows called overhead. Further on, in the wooded pools of the abandoned sewage works, moorhens called from the depths of tree roots while blue tits, great tits and chaffinches fidgeted around the trees.

Banky Lane, reassuringly muddy

Walking through into Banky Meadow proper a pair of ring-necked parakeets made enough noise for a couple of dozen and glowed lime green in the sunlight as they whizzed about the treetops. More titmice, robins and wrens fidgeted through the undergrowth and every ivy-covered tree trunk had at least a couple of blackbirds feeding on the berries. Goldfinches and greenfinches sang in the treetops and every so often pairs of magpies would break off from their mischief to deliver blood-curdling selections of bubbling squeaks, rattles and chatters.

River Mersey, Banky Meadow 

I dropped down to the river which was looking very nice despite the litter. I was hoping for goosanders and/or grey wagtails bit had no luck with them. A couple of pairs of mallards dozed by the far bank and a coot was feeding by the sand bank on the curve as a cormorant flew low over the river upstream. A buzzard was calling from somewhere over Urmston Meadows but I couldn't see it.

I rejoined Banky Lane and had a look to see if anything was about on the water treatment works. I wasn't expecting a lot, this is one of the less productive works I know of, so a couple of dozen black-headed gulls and a handful of pigeons was a fair haul.

I debated whether or not to have a late afternoon stroll across Carrington Moss but decided against. I'd had a fair walk and me and the boots are still only getting used to each other so I wasn't for pushing my luck. The 280 bus was due soon on Carrington Lane so I got that and went the long way home.