Mersey Valley

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

Another bright, sunny morning but unlike most of the past week one with the promise it might stay that way. I really wanted to go to the Wirral to see what Summer migrants might have landed but going through Liverpool on public transport on Grand National day is a fool's game. I spent half the morning havering through the options in a frenzy of indecision before telling myself for God's sake just go for a walk and see what you find.

Stretford Meadows 

I wandered down to Stretford Meadows. The sunshine had kicked off the birdsong with goldfinches, starlings and dunnocks joining in with the blackbirds, wrens and robins which have been a constant part of the suburban soundscape this past couple of weeks. Walking past Newcroft Garden Centre the hedgerows were full of spadgers and great tits. The helmeted guinea fowl that's a ubiquitous feature of the stables by the car park had some friends with it today and they quietly fed in the paddock with the horses.

No.

I decided not to take the first turn onto the meadows. The second wasn't so spectacularly awful but still unwalkable. Further along a gap in the fence offered a slightly muddy path winding through the birches and onto the main path South of the mound via a running stream through a stand of willowherb that provided a chance to clean my boots. All the while chiffchaffs, song thrushes, blackbirds and a blackcap sang in the trees by the path and robins sang in the birch scrub. The hawthorns and blackthorns are now coming into leaf and suddenly everywhere is green, a hint of the challenges to come in Summer when most small birds are seen only as the passing shakings of leaves and twigs.

Kestrel, Stretford Meadows

Out on the open meadow there were plenty of magpies kicking about and a few robins, wrens and reed buntings in the hawthorn scrub. A few jackdaws flew overhead, there weren't the usual passing squadrons of crows and woodpigeons, what there were about were busy in the trees over by the cricket pitch. A parakeet called from somewhere over there but I couldn't see it. The male kestrel was sitting in the female's favourite tree, which I hope means she's busy on a nest somewhere.

Reed bunting, Stretford Meadows

I walked down along Kickety Brook where it looks like the result of all that strimming and trimming is going to be a sea of Himalayan balsam come high Summer. Blackbirds, song thrushes, chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang in the trees accompanied by the squeaks, rattles and shrieks of magpies and ring-necked parakeets. The reed buntings and great tits quietly went about their business in the bushes on the bank of the brook.

Walking along Kickety Brook 

Stretford Ees was fairly quiet in comparison. Great tits, wrens and chiffchaffs sang, the usual long-tailed tits were in the bushes near Hawthorn Lane but were being very shy, and dunnocks and robins foraged along the tramside embankment.

There were watersports going on on the lake at Sale Water Park. The paths were very busy too, which shouldn't come as a surprise on a sunny Saturday after days of filthy weather. The great crested grebes were nowhere to be seen and the only coots were on nests deep in drowned willows where people wouldn't be throwing balls into the lake for their dogs to retrieve. The mute swans were massed on the far corner of the lake by Cow Lane.

Broad Ees Dole 

The teal pool on Broad Ees Lane was quiet, just a drake mallard and a drake teal out on the water. The mute swan was on her nest and it sounded like there were more teal deep in the reeds. A willow warbler made itself heard above the song thrushes, blackbirds and chaffinches. I heard a snatch of what might have been a reed warbler singing in the distant reeds but not enough to be sure of it.

Herons, Broad Ees Dole

The hide was busy, which didn't seem to fuss the herons loafing nearby on the pool by the ditch any. I did as best could to look over the pool from the gaps in vegetation at the sides of the hide. There were a couple more herons on the island with some coots and gadwall and a sleeping pair of goosanders. The Cetti's warbler in the brambles by the electricity pylon wasn't put out by passersby and sang whenever he felt like it. I had worried that he might be protesting at passing dogs but he sang even when nothing was near.

As I walked away a buzzard soared low overhead and headed for the river.

Barrow Brook 

I decided to give the café a miss and walked up Barrow Brook into Sale Ees. Mute swans and mallards nested by the brook. Chiffchaffs, robins and wrens sang in trees by the brook while blackcaps, blackbirds and song thrushes sang deeper in the trees.

Remarkably Jackson's Boat was the only place along the whole walk that didn't have any parakeets about. 

River Mersey

I decided to carry on along the Cheshire side of the river rather than take my usual route into Chorlton Water Park. It was a lot less busy and I could duck straight into Kenworthy Woods. The river was inevitably high, feeling even higher because the bank on this side of the river is about two-thirds the height of the North bank. Pairs of mallards dabbled by the banks and a couple of cormorants flew upstream. There wasn't anywhere for wagtails to settle or forage. A buzzard soared over the golf course.

Buzzard, Chorlton

I bobbed into Kenworthy Woods for an explore, I've not gone very far into the Western half of the wood and it was time that I did. While the Eastern half is dead flat the Western half has more dips and rises to the pathways. The trees and hedges were no less busy than they had been elsewhlere and I added a great spotted woodpecker to the day's tally. A couple of rabbits joined the carrion crows feeding in one of the clearings. 

Kenworthy Woods 

I got the 101 into Manchester and just missed my bus home so I got the 250 towards the Trafford Centre, getting off at St Modwens Road and walking through the park on my way home added more chiffchaffs, song thrushes, robins, wrens and blackcaps to the day's backing music.