Mersey Valley

Robin, Cob Kiln Wood

It was a mild, dry, grey November Sunday, a bit of a contrast to the bright, frosty Saturday. I'd topped up the feeders in the back garden, supervised by the coal tit, the robin and one of the dunnocks, all within reaching distance, and the pair of great tits on the other side of the roses. They were soon joined by a couple of blue tits and half a dozen spadgers before one of the squirrels barged in to have a go at the fat feeder. He didn't linger, the spadgers weren't taking prisoners. 

There's something odd going on with the sparrows. For the past ten years or so there have been two families, one ("Team Tawny") based in the rambling rose hedge by the train station, one ("Team Silver") based in the brambles on the embankment by the little park. The past couple of years it's been getting harder to tell them apart at a glance as there's a bit of gene flow between the two and the bright silver cheeks of the patriarchs in Team Silver looks to be a recessive gene, the younger males have tended towards a lead grey. So I've been tending to tell the difference by the direction of travel: Team Tawny works the gardens and embankments in an anticlockwise direction, Team Silver clockwise. Except I've not seen much clockwise movement this week and then never more than a couple of birds at a time. They may just have decided to go with the flow and all move anticlockwise, in which case I won't be seeing the big crowd scenes when both families coincide on the feeders. Time will tell.

Cob Kiln Wood, the bridge over Ousel Brook 

I decided on a bit of a local potter to keep the joints moving and headed off to Cob Kiln Wood. The treetops on the approach down Torbay Road were full of woodpigeons and I'd barely stepped onto the path into the wood when I encountered a large mixed tit flock. At first I thought it was just a large family of long-tailed tits but a few blue tits and great tits tagged along. They bounced off into the trees beyond Ousel Brook, leaving behind a bunch of woodpigeons and magpies in the trees and half a dozen blackbirds chucking leaves about on the ground. I kept bumping into a mixed tit flock throughout my walk through the wood and I couldn't tell if it was the same one or two or three flocks.

Cob Kiln Wood 

The paths were surprisingly passable but I still decided not to cross the clearing with the pylons, the path at the other end gets interesting in the best of weathers. Chaffinches, goldfinches and greenfinches passed overhead but the only finch I found in the trees was a male bullfinch in one of the hawthorns. I only found that because I was trying to keep tabs on a goldcrest that I first noticed fidgeting about in a young oak tree. The goldcrest didn't seem part of the tit flock passing through here, in fact all the goldcrests I saw this afternoon seemed to be lone agents.

I had a look at the river, toyed with the idea of walking into Banky Meadow and decided against, walking down the river to Kickety Brook Nature Reserve instead. The paths were busy with people, dogs and bicycles and the handful of mallards on the river were keeping away from any dogs giddying about on the banks. 

River Mersey

Woodpigeons, jackdaws and carrion crows flew to and fro over the golf course on the other side, the jackdaws already starting to drift over towards the roost on Bradley Lane. I spent a few minutes watching a crow and a black-headed gull having a dogfight over the golf course. I've no idea what it was about, it wasn't one chasing the other to try to steal food as each time it looked like the action was over and they started drifting apart one or other would swoop back to resume the fight. I think they got bored or distracted in the end as they flew off in opposite directions over the river.

A goldcrest flew over the river and disappeared into the hawthorns next to me on the path, re-emerging a couple of times to dare me to try and take a photo before vanishing into the depths. A flock of a couple of dozen siskins flew high overhead and descended into the trees behind the Riverbank Coffee shack.

Kickety Brook LNR

As I walked into Kickety Brook Nature Reserve the jackdaws and ring-necked parakeets were making a racket of going to roost. Otherwise it was fairly quiet, the highlights being another goldcrest working an oak tree and a nuthatch playing peekaboo in some willows. 

Ring-necked parakeet, Stretford Meadows

Over the motorway and onto Stretford Meadows which I would have said was very quiet but now the leaves are off the trees the motorway noise is all-pervasive. I stuck to the Transpennine Route, the paths onto the meadows property looking suspiciously passable with an obvious intent on trapping the unwary and filling their boots with muddy water. Magpies bounced around in the trees while reed buntings flew into hawthorn bushes to roost with robins and blackbirds. Where the path diverges a few great tits and blue tits were settling down in the dogwoods by the path leading to Loretto Road while a goldcrest accompanied me part of the way towards Newcroft Road. Half a dozen parakeets were settling down for the night in the trees by the stables as I passed.

Stretford Meadows 

I'd had a good afternoon's wander and the garden centre was still open so I popped in and bought myself a nice hellebore for the front garden by way of a prize for good behaviour.