Urmston

Great spotted woodpecker, Urmston Meadows
I think that's a goat moth caterpillar it's dug out.

Feeling considerably better than yesterday I drifted over to Cob Kiln Wood for a wander round. It was a bright, cloudy day with a light breeze and considerably nicer for walking than yesterday. To be on the safe side I was good and wore my going out glasses, I'll just have to learn how to use the bins with them.

Cob Kiln Wood 

I walked into Cob Kiln Wood from Torquay Road. Great tits and a couple of robins could be heard in the trees, the robins being youngsters practising their scales. A steady stream of woodpigeons and carrion crows passed overhead and more woodpigeons rummaged about in the treetops. 

Chiffchaff, Cob Kiln Wood

I was looking for the bullfinches I could hear calling in the electricity pylon clearing when I noticed a mixed tit flock silently working its way through the canopy. Long-tailed tits, blue tits and chiffchaffs bounced about, the great tits kept to themselves in the woods. One of the chiffchaffs was a bright straw-yellow juvenile. Try as I may it wasn't for being photographed . I only got a brief glimpse of the bullfinches and even less of the willow warbler at the other end of the clearing.

I walked down Cob Kiln Lane towards Urmston. A buzzard called over the river and drifted upstream. Swallows passed overhead and parakeets screeched about the treetops.

Urmston Meadows 

I walked past the cemetery and into Urmston Meadows. This was a lot quieter at first than Cob Kiln Wood today though there were a lot more squirrels about. It wasn't until I started walking back on the Northern side of the meadows that I started having more luck. A few chaffinches moving through the trees were heralds for a mixed tit flock which included long-tailed tits, blue tits and great tits with a couple of chiffchaffs. As they bounced through the alders and horse chestnuts I noticed a great spotted woodpecker working its way up a dead tree. Judging by the number of holes pecked in the tree it's fruitful in grubs and caterpillars if naught else.

I walked into Urmston where the house martins seemed to be still visiting their nests on Church Road and a migrant hawker zipped by me as I approached the bus stop. I got the 23 to do a bit of shopping in Chorlton. A brown hawker passed the bus as we were stopped at roadworks. I'll have to do more dragonfly watching at bus stops.