Mersey Valley

Broad Ees Dole: herons, goodanders, gadwall and teal

It threatened to be a good day for weather despite the occasional heavy shower in the morning so after a late breakfast I set off for a wander down Stretford Meadows and on to Sale Water Park.

It was a day of birdsong, starting about an hour before dawn when the blackbirds started. I woke to the sound of a chaffinch singing by the railway line, a first as they're only ever Winter visitors this side of the park (why twenty yards of mown grass is a barrier has always been beyond me). I looked out of the window as I drank my tea and pondered on the very complicated sex lives of the dunnocks.

Stretford Meadows 

I looked at the paths on Stretford Meadows and elected to stay on the Transpennine Trail, which wasn't short of its own puddles. Chaffinches, robins, great tits and goldfinches sang in the trees and mobs of magpies chased each other across the hawthorn bushes on the meadows. Both the kestrels were about: the male hovering over the rise while the female sat by the motorway. Dunnocks and wrens sang from the brambles along the path. The sun emerged from the clouds and decided to stay awhile and it became quite a warm day.

Magpie, Stretford Meadows

Kestrel, Stretford Meadows

Walking along Kickety Brook 

I passed under Chester Road and walked along Kickety Brook towards Stretford Ees. Somebody had been giddy with a strimmer and taken out all the undergrowth cover either side of the path. A feeder full of fat balls had been hung on one of the remaining trees. The irony did not escape me.

I walked through Stretford Ees to the songs of great tits, wrens and robins, the screech of parakeets and the bone-crunching sound of carrion crows making baby carrion crows. Long-tailed tits and blue tits bounced through the wood and blackbirds and woodpigeons worked their way through the ivy berries. A buzzard, hunting low over the wet meadow, was chased off by crows and drifted over the tramway only to deliberately float back just to make the point that it could.

Stretford Ees 

The river was still high and fast but Canada geese and mallards bobbed around in the torrent all the same.

The usual crowd of gulls on Sale Water Park was down to half a dozen black-headed gulls and a couple of second calendar year herring gulls. It's been similar on the school playing field back home where the black-headed gulls are in single figures, replaced on the field by jackdaws and woodpigeons. One pair of great crested grebes were asleep by the reeds, another was display dancing over on the other side of the lake. I can see I'll not be getting any photos of the dance this year. One pair of coots were already occupying a nest in the roots of a willow.

Broad Ees Dole 

Herons, gadwall and coot, Broad Ees Dole

Heron and teal, Broad Ees Dole

Gadwall, goosanders and teal, Broad Ees Dole

Broad Ees Dole was busy. The teal pool was relatively quiet with pairs of mallard and, appropriately, teal. A heron dozed in the reeds and a mute swan dozed on its nest. A Cetti's warbler sang from the brambles by the electricity pylon, the first I've heard round here in years. It carried on singing as I sat down in the hide for a look at the big pool. The water was just low enough for a few herons and pairs of gadwall to loaf on the islands. More pairs of gadwall dabbled on the pool with a male shoveler and a dozen coots while a pair of goosanders cruised around looking elegant. It took an age to find the dabchick I kept hearing, it was feeding amongst the roots of the drowned willows in the corner. I was just feeling smug about finding it when I noticed that a pair of snipe had been on the bank in front of the hide all along.

Snipe, Broad Ees Dole

Snipe, Broad Ees Dole
The same bird as above, pteening

I walked along the lake to the café. The usual gang of mute swans, Canada geese and mallards were scrounging over by the car park, closer by there were a few more mute swans and pairs of tufted ducks. Blackbirds and song thrushes sang in the hedgerows and a pair of goldcrests fussed about in one of the elder bushes. Walking down the path I wondered where the rain of wood shavings was coming from. Twenty feet above my head a parakeet was chewing away at a branch.

I got a drink at the café and sat by the feeders to see what was about. The feeding wasn't as frenetic as it has been, which meant that it wasn't just great tits and long-tailed tits getting a look in. A pair of coal tits lingered, giving me a chance to weigh them up properly. Of the pair that visit my garden the male has a peach flush to his underparts while the female is straw yellow. This pair were both straw yellow, the female being much the paler of the two. I suspect this is down to their diet during the moult, some types of caterpillar have chemicals which birds metabolise into bright plumage pigments. In a similar way some great tits have primrose yellow underparts while others are rich buttery yellow. A male great spotted woodpecker came in to visit and was chased off by magpies. As I was finishing my drink a willow tit came in to feed on the fat balls.

Jay, Sale Ees

Walking through Sale Ees to Jackson's Boat the trees were full of woodpigeons and carrion crows and the first of the jackdaws were coming in to roost.  A jay was disturbed by dogs as it fossicked around the sluice gate. A chiffchaff sang and made display flight sorties in the apple trees by the river on the Lancashire side. It kept posing for the camera and skittering off as soon as I got it in focus. The blue tits were more obliging, the long-tailed tits weren't. A noisy flock of a few dozen black-headed gulls flew high overhead heading North for who knows where.

Blue tit, Jackson's Boat

River Mersey, Chorlton Ees 

The walk through Chorlton Ees was noisy with parakeets, robins, wrens and jackdaws but particularly with song thrushes and blackbirds which seemed to be having a competition to see which could sing the loudest. Ivy Green was marginally quieter though the carrion crows tried their best to make up for it. Turn Moss was quieter, most of the song thrushes were busy getting something to eat before bedtime and the mistle thrushes didn't feel the need to shout.

Ivy Green 

I walked down to Edge Lane and got the 25 bus home feeling surprisingly tired for what was only a bit more than five miles' walk. In my defense, there was quite a lot of mud involved. Seeing in the dawn before finally getting to sleep probably didn't help. On my way home from the bus stop thirty-eight lesser black-backs flew overhead to their roost somewhere on the river probably near Woolston Eyes.