Mersey Valley

Mute swan, Sale Ees

The weather looked a lot iffy and I was feeling low on energy — it's nice to know the robin's resuming his dawn chorus at six in the morning but it would be nicer to know that after a couple of hours' sleep not before it — so I decided to stay local for today's walk. As I was putting my boots on the garden's first mixed tit flock bounced in. It was difficult to pin down the runners and riders, a chiffchaff amongst handfuls of blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits so I lingered and watched them as the sky darkened.

I waited for the passing over of the thunderstorm that never quite came at lunchtime and got the bus into Chorlton and walked down into Ivy Green.

It was unpleasant walking weather, heavy and humid, and everything was a bit slow. A few robins and a nuthatch sang, a few blue tits and great tits bounced through the undergrowth, woodpigeons, carrion crows and squirrels clattered about the treetops and a couple of wrens told me to move along, sir.

Chorlton Ees 

Chorlton Ees was yet quieter. I breathed a sigh of relief when a chiffchaff called from an elderberry bush. We're at that time of year when the leaf cover's still up but the small birds are concentrated into Winter flocks so they could all be ten yards away and you'd be none the wiser unless you're lucky and one of them catches your eye. One didn't this afternoon, the chiffchaff was on its own and was busy scoffing berries.

Chorlton Ees 

Things picked up at Jackson's Boat where a great spotted woodpecker made itself heard above the mutterings of parakeets in the treetops and a few mallards drifted down the river.

I walked along the brook to Sale Water Park. A treecreeper in the hawthorn at the top of the path had a good look at me, decided I was nothing and got back to its business in the depths of the bush. More robins and great tits rummaged about the path side and a mute swan dozed on the bankside.

Great crested grebe, Sale Water Park

I bumped into a mixed tit flock by the waterside at Sale Water Park. Long-tailed tits, great tits, blue tits and half a dozen chiffchaffs shuffled between the hawthorn bushes. There weren't any ducks out on the water, just the one drake mallard sleeping with the Canada geese on the pontoon. It wasn't until I walked past the islands that I encountered a raft of coots with a couple of great crested grebes and a mute swan feeding at the edge of the reeds. Out on the water every buoy had its black-headed gull.

Broad Ees Dole 

At first sight Broad Ees Dole looked quiet, half a dozen teal and a gadwall with a couple of moorhens. Then a heron flew in and disturbed a couple of pairs of shovelers and some mallards swam in from the teal pool.

Shovelers, Broad Ees Dole

I crossed the river over onto Stretford Ees. Parakeets, magpies and woodpigeons clattered about in the treetops while robins and chiffchaffs called from the undergrowth.

The light drizzle turned to proper rain so I took the hint and headed off home.