Local patch

Barton Clough 

It was a quiet, wet Sunday after a fiercely windy night and life in the back garden pootled along as usual.

Lostock Park

I took advantage of a lull in the rain to have a wander around the local patch. The sun managed to break through the clouds but it was generally murky and most of the birds were quietly settling down for a very early night. Gulls, a cormorant and a ring-necked parakeet flew overhead to their roosts. It seemed odd to see or hear neither woodpigeons nor robins.

• Black-headed gull 2
• Blackbird 2
• Blue tit 3
• Carrion crow 4
• Common gull 1
• Cormorant 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great tit 1
• Herring gull 2
• Lesser black-back 2
• Magpie 15
• Ring-necked parakeet 1
• Starling 2

I walked down to the Trafford Centre hoping to see a crowd of gulls having a pre-roost loaf on the Event City site and there wasn't a one to be seen.

Barton Clough