Stretford

Stretford Meadows 

It was a lovely Autumn day so of course I was otherwise engaged and couldn't go for a long walk. Consolation was that as I was walking home with my dad we watched a buzzard soaring low overhead.

I drifted into a late afternoon stroll across Stretford Meadows. Robins sang in the trees as I negotiated the mudbath onto the meadows. The paths across were almost uniformly wet and muddy so a bit of concentration was required to make sure I didn't go sliding and come a cropper.

Stretford Meadows 

There were a few dozen woodpigeons settling down before roost and nearly as many magpies. Carrion crows, jackdaws and a pair of parakeets flew overhead and a buzzard soared over the motorway. It's not often I see any of the pheasants I keep hearing here, today I accidentally startled a hen pheasant that quickly clattered into the cover of a patch of willowherbs.

I walked through the wooded margins between the cricket pitch and the exit to Urmston Lane hoping to bump into a mixed tit flock. There were more woodpigeons and magpies, a jay screeched from an oak tree and I found a pair of long-tailed tits in a hawthorn bush and a great tit fifty yards down in a holly bush. These things don't always go to plan.

Stretford Meadows 

It was getting on and I didn't fancy mudlarking in twilight so after an hour's pottering about I called it quits and moseyed off home. It wasn't the most productive walk across the meadows but by no means was it the least.