Flixton

Blackbird, Jack Lane

Yesterday's decision to have a lazy day today was reinforced by a night's sleep that involved feeding a cat at 3am. I thought I'd spend the afternoon pottering around Wellacre Country Park so I got the 256 into Flixton and set off into Wellacre Wood.

The house sparrows and starlings were plentiful but too busy for making much noise. Blackbirds, wrens, chiffchaffs, robins and blackcaps weren't so shy about singing. A song thrush tuned up a bit then changed its mind and went hunting for food in the grass verges.

Wellacre Wood 

It's amazing how different the wood looks now that Spring is here. In all but the densest patches the woodland floor was green with cow parsley, hogweed, wood avens and wood cranesbills. Which provided plenty of cover for great tits.

Wellacre Wood 

I spent a few minutes scanning over the sewage works at Irlam Locks. There was a steady flow of starlings and magpies collecting food to take back to hungry mouths. A cloud of a hundred or so sand martins billowed low over the filtration beds with a handful of swallows. The black-headed gulls that have been unlucky in love are drifting back to their off-season feeding grounds, there were about a dozen here today.

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

Jack Lane was noisy with singing chiffchaffs, robins and great tits and the pair of reed warblers having a singing duel either side of the path struggled to make themselves heard. A mallard flew out of the reeds as I passed while a moorhen sidled into deeper cover. It was a cool, grey day so my hopes of seeing my first damselflies of the year were wildly optimistic.

Jack Lane Nature Reserve 

Dutton's Pond was busy with anglers and the mallards were kept on their toes dodging ground bait and fishing lines.

Fly Ash Hill was filled with the songs of chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the trees and whitethroats and linnets in the scrub. Goldfinches and greenfinches flitted between the birch trees and the hawthorn bushes.

Fly Ash Hill 

A quick look at the river at Flixton Bridge found me three loafing mallards and a redhead goosander.

The 247 into Altrincham was due so I went home via Altrincham, Warrington and Newton-le-Willows. The CAT5 bus service between Altrincham and Warrington has disappeared from Google Maps so I wanted to check if it's still a thing, it's a useful service for Woolston Eyes as well as Carrington Moss and Dunham Massey. It is still a thing and runs through Lymm and Grappenhall same as ever. Unfortunately we got stuck in a traffic jam for half an hour on the way into Warrington so I missed both the bus to Irlam and the later train back home so I had to get the Manchester train from Bank Quay. Then I noticed there was a connection at Newton-le-Willows with the stopping train from St Helens to Manchester which meant I could get the bus to the Trafford Centre from Eccles and only have to wait five minutes for the bus home and a grumpy cat wanting to know what time you call this and what's for tea?