Pottering about

Peregrine, Trafford Park

It was one of those unpleasant muggy July days that feel sweaty with a heavy sky providing both gloom and glare. I felt the effects of yesterday's drenching and was tempted to stay in and listen to the Test Match but decided that I needed to get a bit of exercise in, just to show willing.

Lostock Park 

I wandered over to Lostock Park to see what was about. The answer was: not a lot of birds. A couple of song thrushes were having a singing contest in the trees, wrens and dunnocks grumbled in the undergrowth and goldfinches twittered between treetops. I was watching a young robin in an elderberry bush by the path when a blue tit and a juvenile blackcap flew in, came over to see what I was and flew back out again. Which pretty much sums up suburban birdwatching this time of year.

I got the 250 to the Trafford Centre and had a walk up Trafford Way. (I could have walked it but it's a miserable walk even when the weather isn't grubby.) I had two goals in mind: a quick look at the "Beyond" building which is a favoured perch for peregrines after Trafford Centre pigeons and a nosy at the gulls loafing on the vacant lot where the private clinic used to be. I've seen a crowd of black-headed gulls there whenever I've been past and any crowd of gulls is worth checking out.

First sighting: Peregrine, Trafford Park 

A peregrine was perched on Beyond right enough today. It's not often I see one in passing but if I walk out to the building more often than not I'll see one. This was a dark, young-looking bird, not one of this year's but definitely not an adult. The pigeons and woodpigeons flew about with gay abandon, if they can see a peregrine sitting down they know they're reasonably safe.

Black-headed gulls, Trafford Park 

There were a hundred and forty-three black-headed gulls on the puddle-strewn tarmac. A few of the adults still had brown heads but most were well into their non-breeding plumage. There were a few lesser black-backs, mostly panda-eyed juveniles. Two adult herring gulls perched on lampposts and a huge brute of a juvenile herring gull lurked on the periphery of the black-headed gulls.

Black-headed gulls, Trafford Park 

On the way back home I had a look at the vacant lot that used to be Event City. Thirty-five lesser black-backs loafed on the wet concrete with three herring gulls. So that's two more sites for me to be baffled by gulls this Winter.