Stretford

Blackcap, Stretford Ees

It was a nice sunny day though there was a bit of an edge to the wind. I decided on a quiet day's birdwatching and headed over to Turn Moss to see if I could find the redstart that's been bobbing around in the hedgerows there. I got the 25 to Longford Park and walked down Turn Moss Road into the car park. I checked all the trees around the car park, just in case, and found a couple of pairs of great tits and robins. 

Turn Moss 

Then I walked down onto Hawthorn Lane and walked up to the houses, checking the trees and bushes in the pocket handkerchief bit of woodland there. The chiffchaffs and great tits in the trees made plenty of noise, the carrion crows and ring-necked parakeets flying about overhead made even more. The flashes of red from a couple of pairs of robins and a pair of bullfinches set off a few false alarms. Both pairs of robins were checking out possible nest sites. I suspect the jay that was very quietly working its way through the bases of the brambles was doing very similar with a view to dinner.

Robin, Turn Moss

I got to the end of Hawthorn Lane and retraced my steps. I spent the next hour covering the length of Hawthorn Lane from here to Stretford Cemetery, walking at slow march pace in between stopping to check out moving twigs or stray shadows. Turn Moss is nearly always at the end of a long walk to be dashed through to catch my bus so it's rarely I give it the attention it deserves, though this afternoon was probably a bit of an overkill. I had no joy in finding a redstart but found healthy populations of titmice, chiffchaffs and blackcaps. 

Hawthorn Lane 

The sunny weather had brought out the butterflies — orange tips and brimstones were all over the place and commas were laying eggs in nettle patches. I'm old enough to remember when commas were scarce.

Heron, Stretford Ees

There were more singing blackcaps — five of them — in the hawthorns by the pool on Stretford Ees. They appeared to be vying for the attention of a female that seemed more intent on gleaning insects from the leaves than paying any attention to them. They were a busy old couple of  hawthorn bushes, besides the blackcaps there were a few reed buntings and goldfinches, a chiffchaff and a pair of blue tits in there. A moorhen, a drake mallard and a heron were feeding on the pool, it's a bit early yet for dragonflies.

Stretford Ees 

I got to the river and decided I didn't want to walk through Chorlton Ees and certainly didn't fancy walking through to Chorlton Water Park. So I walked across Stretford Ees and followed Kickety Brook into Stretford Meadows. 

Kickety Brook passing under the tram and canal bridges

Rather than retracing my steps from the other day I took the path that goes off at right angles and heads through the woods towards Cherry Tree Walk. There were more titmice, chiffchaffs and parakeets and the pheasant was calling from somewhere on the edge of the open country. The orange tips and brimstones were joined by a few speckled woods. And it was just a couple of weeks ago I was worrying I hadn't seen any butterflies.

Stretford Meadows 

I turned at the corner and followed the path along the Northern perimeter, bumping into my first whitethroat of the year singing from an elder bush in the open. It took me a few moments to realise it was a whitethroat singing. I'm going to have to revise warbler songs again otherwise I'm going to be in dead trouble when the garden warblers start arriving.

I took the exit at the top of Sandy Lane and decided to call it quits on the birdwatching and get the weekly shop done. I'd taken my time over an exactly three mile walk and though I hadn't had any luck finding a redstart it had been a very pleasant walk and there had been plenty enough about.

(All the little gulls reported in lakes and reservoirs around Greater Manchester late last night upped and went at the crack of dawn so I did well not chasing after them. If I see them at all this Spring it'll be by being at the right place at the right time by sheer good luck.)