Local patch

Barton Clough

Still being awake for the dawn chorus is a nuisance in midsummer, this time of the year it's a major pain in the neck. On the plus side I get to find out who's doing the singing at the moment — blackbirds, robins and wrens at the moment — but the minus side is that I didn't feel like jumping out of bed to get the train out and about. 

A not untypical view of the spadgers in the back garden these days

I didn't want to waste a nice Spring day so I bobbed over to the local patch to see if that's as noisy as the Mersey Valley was yesterday. Not quite, but nearly which comes as a relief after a very quiet Winter. Having chiffchaffs already singing in two of the three usual territories was heartening, I hope nobody takes it into their heads to do any Spring tidy-up of the scrub on the old cornfield, it would be good to see a recovery of the blackcaps and whitethroats.

• Blackbird 9, 5 singing
• Carrion crow 4
• Chaffinch 1 singing
• Chiffchaff 2 singing
• Dunnock 2 singing
• Feral pigeon 2
• Goldfinch 1
• Great tits 5, 4 singing
• Greenfinch 2, 1 singing
• Lesser black-back 2 overhead
• Magpie 13
• Mistle thrush 2
• Robin 7 singing
• Song thrush 1 singing
• Starling 2
• Woodpigeon 18
• Wren 7, 6 singing

A red admiral meandering down the old railway line was my first butterfly of the year.