Stretford

Kestrel, Stretford Meadows

It was a grey but surprisingly mild day with a promise of the rain we're told to expect tomorrow. Still, it held off so I went for an afternoon wander round Stretford Meadows after kicking myself for not waiting until today's crowd scenes for the Big Garden Birdwatch.

Stretford Meadows
The traffic cone marks the palette that sometimes dips under the mud.

The spadgers in the hedgerows by Newcroft Road were very frisky and noisy, not the only signs of Spring as blackbirds, song thrushes and robins were belting out their songs. It's been relatively dry lately so I took a chance and went for a walk out in the open meadow. It was muddy underfoot in places, particularly on the higher reaches of the mound, but nothing too dreadful. The major discomfort was caused by my dressing for yesterday rather than today and being uncomfortably warm.

Great tits called from the trees by Newcroft Road, dozens of woodpigeons loafed in the treetops and half a dozen ring-necked parakeets wheeled around them. There was a steady passage of lesser black-backs and jackdaws overhead.

It was just as busy out on the open meadow. The robins, wrens and reed buntings were tricky to pin down in the brambles. The magpies gamboling about were rather a lot easier, as were the three jays retrieving acorns from their caches. The female kestrel hunted from her favourite hawthorn, when she wasn't being harassed by carrion crows. I've not seen her mate for a while.

I dropped down the hill to the main path and walked along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees. Blue tits, great tits, dunnocks and robins foraged in the trees, keeping well out of the way of the magpies in the treetops.

Mallatds, Stretford Ees

Blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits bounced about the scrub on Stretford Ees. Blackbirds, a mistle thrush and a song thrush sang in the trees along Hawthorn Road. The pond at the beginning of Kickety Brook was very high, half a dozen mallards loafed and dozed in the half-drowned reeds and flag irises. A cormorant was fishing in the river just by.

Hawthorn Road 

I walked through Turn Moss for the bus home. All the gulls had moved on to gather before their roosts, leaving a few magpies and carrion crows behind. A coal tit joined in with the robins, great tits and blackbirds singing in the trees.

Stretford Meadows