Local patch

Blackbird, Lostock Park 

It was a sunny and somnolent Sunday suitable for something alliterative about listening to the cricket so I limited myself to a short dawdle about the local patch. Half the world had settled down to watch the football and the other half had sweated cobs walking their dogs in the midday heat so I had a nice quiet time of it. The birds were singing and all was well in the world. 

Barton Clough 

Apparently there are two whitethroat territories this year, one in the bramble patch that missed the strimmer's touch last year and the other at the Eastern end of the site where nobody can be bothered to go. I thought we were down to two chiffchaffs but a third was singing over by the skateboard park. The great tits and blue tits were all lying doggo, I know for a fact there were at least two pairs of each but they've done the same disappearing act here as the ones in my garden. The pair of ring-necked parakeets in the poplars were a mixed delight.

There were two lesser black-backs on the rooftop of one of the industrial units, I'm pretty sure they were loafing rather than nesting but they're the two that gave the buzzard a hard time the other day so I wouldn't be surprised to be wrong.

• Blackbird 15, 8 singing
• Blackcap 3 singing
• Carrion crow 1
• Chaffinch 2, 1 singing
• Chiffchaff 3 singing
• Dunnock 1 singing
• Feral pigeon 2 
• Goldfinch 10, 2 singing 
• House sparrow 2, 1 singing
• Lesser black-back 2
• Magpie 6
• Mistle thrush 2
• Ring-necked parakeet 2
• Robin 6, 3 singing 
• Song thrush 1 singing 
• Whitethroat 2 singing 
• Woodpigeon 19, 4 singing 
• Wren 4 singing