Rainy day

A wet back garden 

Not for the first time I was tempted to go and try my luck at climbing over the fence at Audenshaw Reservoir, this week's tempting offer being a lesser scaup amongst the tufties. Authorized access is via permit only and these are issued via a Byzantine process on a dead man's shoes basis. Unauthorized access is rife, evidenced by the army of dog walkers you see as you pass by on the bus on a sunny Summer's evening. There's probably a few gaps in the fence, I can't see anybody manhandling a Staffie over it. I decided to put temptation behind me and head in the opposite direction.

 The "showery spells" promised by the weather forecasts turned out to be persistent heavy rain. Appropriately enough, two Canada geese flew onto the patch of grass the other side of the railway for a few minutes' grazing while all the dog walkers were putting their wellies on. When I first heard them I hoped it was a gaggle of pink-footed geese overhead, they've been very thin on the ground here this Winter.

I was amused to watch one starling's attempts to get at the fat balls on the feeders without getting wet. Try as it may it wasn't possible for it to be able to stretch out from the Pyracantha bush without getting rain on its head. I suppose its being afraid of the rain is the reason it wasn't in the flock on the playing field hunting for leatherjackets. I've got to be very lucky indeed to see either of the coal tits sneaking in. They prefer the feeder by the living room window because there's less traffic about but even then I'll only see a fleeting glimpse of one slipping in behind the roses and darting out with a sunflower seed in its beak.

I thought I'd have a walk over Bolton way. When I left the house there were seventy-four woodpigeons on the playing field in the rain. There was a lot of birdsong at the station: the blackbird seems to never stop, he was joined today by the blackcap, the robin and a duelling couple of wrens.

I noticed one of the Canada geese was back on the nest at Pomona, its mate a few yards down the canal escorting a passing barge out of its territory. I'll have to keep an eye on progress. Talking of progress, the young magpies at Trafford Park Station having half-built half a dozen jerry built nests seem to have got bored with the idea and have reverted to making a nuisance of themselves to the pair that are trying to occupy the nest they completed away from the treetop shanty town.

I got to Oxford Road, the train to Bolton was cancelled, the rain got heavier, I asked myself if this is really how I saw myself sailing through my twilight years, I knocked today's birdwatching on the head. It seems I am a fair-weather birdwatcher after all.