Gloom

Dinting Viaduct from Dinting Road

The morning kept hinting of better things but my putting my boots on for a walk round the Salford mosses was the cue for an hours-long pour down.

The garden was quiet, the spadgers huddling in the ivies and the blackbirds huddling under the gooseberry bush with the squirrels. The school playing field was even quieter: rather than encouraging the usual influx of gulls the rain seemed to have driven them away.

I had the fidgets. I noticed a report that a mealy redpoll was in a flock of lesser redpolls visiting gardens ten minutes' walk away from Hadfield Station so I decided to give it a go, either species would be a year tick and I can get there with my monthly travel card. I purposely left the bins and camera at home, I'm very uncomfortable pointing either at people's houses.

The birdlife along the line between Piccadilly and Hadfield was pretty quiet. Woodpigeons sat hunched in trackside trees, magpies and blackbirds sat in treetops and once we passed Godley pairs of jackdaws sitting on rooftops became a commonplace.

From Hadfield Station I walked down Newshaw Lane towards the housing estate where the redpolls had been reported. Jackdaws and pigeons sat on rooftops in the pouring rain, starlings and song thrushes sang in the trees. Passing the school jackdaws started accumulating to roost and robins sang in gardens. Walking round I noticed that most of the front gardens had bird feeders, which was encouraging. In the end the only finches I could find were a couple of goldfinches high in a treetops.

Brookfield Playground

It was apparent I wasn't going to strike lucky, there wasn't anything like a flock of any kind of small birds to be seen. This is no great surprise, if I can't guarantee seeing the two dozen house sparrows that visit my back garden which I know intimately it's a bit of a punt to look for redpolls in an unfamiliar setting. But it's worth a go.

I walked down Dinting Road to Dinting Station. Blue tits, great tits and robins bounced about in the birch scrub by the road, blackbirds rummaged in the undergrowth and song thrushes and a mistle thrush sang from treetops.

I struck lucky and arrived at the station just as the train pulled in. I was glad to get out of the rain but it had been a nice little toddle.