Mersey Valley

Long-tailed tit, Sale Ees

It was a cooler, cloudier day with a moderate pollen forecast so I decided on a local wander from Stretford Meadows to wherever the mood took me.

A bit different to early Spring

Stretford Meadows was bone dry, not surprising after weeks without rain but it still comes as a shock when the entrance from Newcroft Road is like concrete. The trees were busy with robins, wrens and song thrushes, chiffchaffs and great tits fussed in the willow scrub and reed buntings and whitethroats sang in the hawthorns in the meadow. Three swallows flew low overhead as I walked into the open ground.

Stretford Meadows 

Judging by the flitting about between the hawthorns great tits, robins and dunnocks have flying young in tow and at least one whitethroat was visiting a nest.

While there were plenty of passing jackdaws, woodpigeons and pigeons, and a pair of collared doves, just a single stock dove flew over. I hope its mate is sat on a nest. The only raptor I saw was a female sparrowhawk drifting over from Urmston Lane.

Vicia sp, Stretford Meadows. Not sure if this is common vetch or one of the tares.

The wildflowers on the meadows were in fine form, the grasses peppered with vetches, restharrow, buttercups and a medley of umbellifers. Despite the dry weather the marsh thistles are starting to burst bud and thickets of great willowherb are already as high as my shoulder.

It is a stonkingly good year for orchids on the meadow. The last of the early purple orchids are going over, early marsh orchids litter the ordinarily damp areas and the first of the Northern marsh orchids are flowering. I've never seen it this good for them before.

Northern marsh orchid, Stretford Meadows

Early marsh orchid, Stretford Meadows

Early marsh orchid (I think), Stretford Meadows

I walked along Kickety Brook towards Stretford Ees. The trees were full of furtive movements, most of which turned out to be robins, wrens, great tits or long-tailed tits. There wasn't a lot furtive about the blackbirds and magpies. The pigeons nesting under the aquaduct by Hawthorn Lane have done well though the youngsters are a motley looking bunch that look randomly splashed with steel grey and white paint.

There wasn't much along the path to the river on Stretford Ees save the ecstatic shrieks of parakeets and a cyclist making a bad fist of pruning branches from the path with a carpentry saw. He was younger than me and wielded a bladed instrument so I didn't query his doing this during the breeding season, besides which he was making such a muck of it as to hardly matter. He'd have done a better job with the big screwdriver poking out of his saddle bag.

Great crested grebe, Sale Water Park

Sale Water Park wasn't overly busy of people or birds. Song thrushes, blackbirds and blackcaps sang in the trees, a few coots and the great crested grebe with the dodgy wing cruised near shore while half a dozen immature lesser black-backs loafed out in mid-water. All the Canada geese were over by the sailing club and the mute swans were congregated at the far side.

Mallard and ducklings, Broad Ees Dole

The drake mallards on the teal pool on Broad Ees Dole were starting to moult into eclipse plumage. A family of ducklings saw there was a person standing on the path by the pool and steamed over in the hopes of a meal, their mother frantically trying to catch up with them. I felt very guilty that I was empty-handed. The Cetti's warbler gave me five seconds of song from deep in the rose bushes by the pool.

Mallards, Broad Ees Dole

A few mallards and a drake shoveler dozed on the pool by the hide. Coots, a moorhen and a dabchick fossicked around and a couple of lapwings had a wash and brush-up by one of the islands. There was a lot of flitting about by reed buntings and a reed warbler sang from the reedbed at the far side of the pool.

Lapwing bathtime, Broad Ees Dole

After pointing out to a youth that playing loud music while standing on the roof of the hide was a suboptimal behaviour for someone aspiring to be a grown-up I decided to move on. Robins, great tits and chiffchaffs fidgeted in the hedgerows by Cow Lane and a small flock of swifts moved in to hawk over the lake. One of the mute swans in the herd had five cygnets in tow.

Long-tailed tit, Sale Ees

Walking along Barrow Brook I bumped into a large mixed flock of small birds. There were too many flitting about one small area for it to be a coincidental confluence of family groups. I noticed the juvenile goldfinches first and that they were feeding with a family of great tits (the great tits in my garden are tagging along with the house sparrows). A family of long-tailed tits had at least a dozen youngsters, it was difficult to keep track of them amongst the willow leaves, similarly the blue tits. There was a pair of treecreepers and at least one each of coal tit and goldcrest, both of which were busy gleaning insects from leaves in the canopy. A bit further on down the brook I bumped into a pair of willow tits.

Treecreeper, Sale Ees

The sun had come out and, after a muggy half hour or so, it began to be a warm afternoon. I decided to have a half-time drink at Jackson's Boat and my eyes were glad of ten minutes' rest from the glare. The trees were noisy with robins, blackbirds and blackcaps and a chiffchaff sang from the bushes on the other side of the river but the parakeets were being very low key with just the occasional chuckle from the depths.

Grey wagtail, River Mersey, Chorlton

It was approaching teatime and I didn't much wish to engage with Chorlton at play, especially not with its e-cyclists, so I stayed on the Cheshire side of the river and walked down towards Kenworthy Woods. 

River Mersey on the way to Kenworthy Woods 

The swallows and house martins which had been notable by their absence so far in the walk drifted in to hawk over the river. Goldfinches and greenfinches twittered overhead between golf courses. I was so busy looking at a male grey wagtail in the opposite bank that I almost missed a heron ten yards upstream catching tiddlers in the shoals. Given the number of carrion crows that were about I was surprised that a magpie had a sparrowhawk's leftovers to itself on the path by Kenworthy Woods.

Magpie and ex-woodpigeon, River Mersey by Kenworthy Woods

Blackbirds, blackcaps and robins sang in the woods, dunnocks and wrens called from the undergrowth and blue tits and great tits bounced around the canopy. For some reason a male great spotted woodpecker took exception to a woodpigeon and screeched an alarm call before flying further into the woods.

Approaching Kenworthy Woods 

I crossed the bridge and had a quick nosy at Chorlton Water Park where the Canada geese were laying siege to the ice cream van.

I carried on upriver, passing under Princess Parkway and along by Merseybank Fields. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the hedgerows, blackbirds chased each other about and robins and wrens fussed in the undergrowth. Another small flock of swifts joined a flock of house martins hawking over the bends in the river.

River Mersey by Merseybank Fields 

It was getting on and I wasn't convinced I had the legs in me for the twists and turns on to Fletcher Moss so I called it quits and got the 23 back to Stretford so I could do the big shop on the way home.

Marsh orchids, Stretford Meadows