Stretford

Orange tip, Stretford Meadows 

It was another bright and breezy day so I set off for Stretford Meadows to see what was about. I was hoping for whitethroats and to see if anything had dropped by on Spring passage, which meant I'd have to negotiate the adventure playground to get onto the meadows and have a damp and muddy walk over the open ground. The recent weather has been drying winds for sure but there are limits and the wind has often been accompanied by downpour. Still, don't look don't see so off I trotted.

Wrens and blackbirds, blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees at the Newcroft Road end. A couple of parakeets squawked in the trees by the motorway. The hedgerows were busy with dunnocks, spadgers and goldfinches and woodpigeons clattered about in the treetops. I took these as good omens and off I went over the palettes.

It would be rude not to.

The paths were every bit as awful as I'd expected and in many places worse. Squelching out into the open I could see plenty of magpies about and a couple of pairs of carrion crows were busy in the hawthorn thickets. Wrens, robins and great tits sang in the brambles and a buzzard soared very high overhead.

Stretford Meadows 

The going got wetter as I walked up the slope and I wasn't having much fun. I decided to drop down to the cricket pitch and take the path East from there which tends to be a lot drier. To be fair it was drier but that meant it was thick wet mud rather than an inch of water and it was a hard slog. Out of the wind it was warm enough for orange tip butterflies to have dogfights over bramble patches and speckled woods to flit about in the long grass in the oak scrub. Great tits and wrens came over to see what I was about and giggle under the cover of leaves. Blackcaps sang in the trees, blackbirds lurked to see if I'd unearth any worms in my progress, dunnocks and long-tailed tits very quietly went about their business in the oak scrub and a robin sneaked by to take a faecal sac a good distance from its nest. 

A raven chased a buzzard off one of the electricity pylons by the motorway. I wasn't sure if it was the same buzzard I'd seen soaring earlier, I'd been concentrating on where my feet were going for the previous quarter of an hour.

Green plastic tubes marking where a lesser whitethroat territory used to be.

I joined the metalled road used by the tip inspectors and banged the mud off my boots and trousers, in between passing the time of day with dogs and dog walkers. I had no luck finding any whitethroats, nor any passage migrants. I did find a few other birdwatchers on the same quest, though, and they'd had the same luck. We lamented the lack of skylarks these days and the bulldozing of healthy bramble patches to make space for planting nursery whips (it isn't just me). One of them told me that a tree pipit had been reported on the meadow first thing. I wished him luck and headed in the opposite direction so as not to put the jinx on his endeavours.

Stretford Meadows looking over into Stretford 

The clouds rolled in and a few spots of rain happened then stopped, much the same as yesterday afternoon but this time the clouds lingered. I dropped down to the peripheral path and headed along Kickety Brook for Stretford Ees. 

Stretford Meadows, back on steadier ground

The trees were busy with robins, blackcaps, great tits and wrens and a great spotted woodpecker called from somewhere over by the recycling centre. Approaching Hawthorn Road I had the opportunity to compare and contrast the slightly squeaky call of a chiffchaff with the slightly more metallic call of a willow warbler, one either side of the path, and for once got it right first time.

Kickety Brook passing under the Bridgewater Canal 

The pigeons under the aquaduct arches were being frisky which gave them something to do as the clouds glowered. More robins, blackcaps, goldfinches and great tits sang in the hedgerows by Stretford Ees and magpies fossicked about in the grass. 

Stretford Ees, this pool is the start of Kickety Brook 

I'd just got to the beginning of Kickety Brook when the hailstorm started. I walked round onto Hawthorn Lane and walked through the cemetery for the bus home in bright sunshine.

River Mersey by Stretford Ees