Shrewsbury

Welsh Bridge over the Severn 

Way back when I went and had a look at a night heron that was lurking on the Dingle at Quarry Park in Shrewsbury I told myself that I should come back and have a proper look round the town some time. A wild and windy night was succeeded by a wild and windy morning and I decided I wasn't to be tempted into going for a walk in the wilds so I got on the Cardiff train at Piccadilly and headed off for Shropshire.

Unsurprisingly most of the bird life along the line was woodpigeons and corvids though I was a bit surprised to be seeing jackdaws more often than woodpigeons as we passed through Cheshire. There were a lot of very wet fields out there waiting for a Spring sowing.

Getting off at Shrewsbury I decided to go the long way and walk along the river to the cathedral. A few mallards dozed by the riverbank, woodpigeons clattered about in the trees while great tits and wrens sang in the roadside shrubs. 

Quarry Park 

My walk took me into Quarry Park. Blue tits and goldfinches bounced about in the trees. Greenfinches, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and blackbirds sang in the trees either side of the river. A return visit to the Dingle — a small formal pond and garden — found a few ducklings with one of the mallards dabbling about the edges.

The Dingle 

The cathedral's quite small and very nice, there's an interesting mix of architecture in the town centre and it's definitely worth a visit.

Highlights on the way back included a close encounter with a red kite that was sitting in a trackside tree just North of Hadnall; a dog fox sunning himself in a field near Coton; and enough ducks, swans and black-headed gulls on the Sandbach flashes to remind me I need to be heading that way soon.

I'm hoping the wind calms down a lot overnight so I can get a walk in. The knees are very much out of condition.