Mersey Valley again

Blackbird, Priory Gardens 

It was another train strike day which limited my options, I didn't feel like doing much and had an excuse for not doing it. It was also another fine sunny day and I could hear myself complaining about all this sunshine any day now so I dragged myself out to play while the weather was nice.

I went over to the Trafford Centre and played bus schedule bingo. The 18 was the next bus out so I caught it and got off at Priory Gardens for a walk along the Mersey.

Priory Gardens 

Priory Gardens was a riot of sound nearly all of which was blackbirds, robins and wrens. A song thrush struggled to make itself heard. Blue tits, great tits and blackcaps bounced about in the undergrowth. A couple of blackcaps sang in the distance but it wasn't until I near the clearing by the motorway I could hear them clearly, together with a couple of chiffchaffs and a whitethroat. I joined the path by the motorway and went over the bridge onto Sale Water Park.

Mute swan and Canada geese, Sale Water Park 

Mute swans and Canada geese loafed by the waterside café. A couple of pairs of geese had goslings in tow. A few mallards were scattered about and a cormorant panted on the pontoon, they seem to feel the heat quicker than most birds.

Cormorant, Sale Water Park 

Ring-necked parakeet, Sale Water Park 

There was more singing in the trees — blackbirds, robins and wrens, blackcaps and chiffchaffs, and song thrushes trying to drown out all the rest. Pairs of dunnocks chased around in the bushes, woodpigeons and ring-necked parakeets clattered about in the treetops.

Robin, Sale Water Park 

I had a sit-down by the café, not expecting much activity on the bird feeders. It was pretty quiet: a squirrel had taken up squatter's rights on the bird table and a couple of great tits flitted to and from the sunflower feeders. Every so often a robin would bob by or a coal tit sneak in while nobody was looking. Everything scattered when a couple of kids passed by and they tried to see where the squirrel went. The first bird back on the feeders was a willow tit. It had the chance to grab one sunflower seed before it was chased off by a great tit which didn't bother to stop and feed, it was evidently just in the mood for a bit of bovver. While I was watching this my first azure damselfly of the year landed on my camera bag then zipped off to hunt around the cranesbills on the bank.

Barrow Brook

I walked along Barrow Brook towards Jackson's Boat. Yet more robins, wrens and blackbirds sang in the trees. Great tits and goldfinches flitted about the hedgerows almost as much as the brimstones and speckled woods fluttering about the path margins.

Jackson's Boat 

Blackcaps joined the soundscape at Jackson's Boat, accompanied by chiffchaffs and whitethroats over the river. A couple of drake mallards dabbled about by the water's edge.

Mallard and ducklings, River Mersey

I stayed on the Cheshire side of the river, it's quieter on this side and I didn't want to have to negotiate my way round swarms of Chorlton cyclists. Additions to the songscape were a willow warbler singing in the trees by Chorlton Golf Course and a meadow pipit singing on Sale Golf Course. There were plenty of mallards about on the river, one duck had a bevvy of ducklings spread from bank to bank. I looked in vain for wagtails or damselflies but there were plenty of brimstones and large whites fluttering about the banks in the sunshine.

River Mersey heading towards Kenworthy Woods 

There were more brimstones and large whites fluttering about Kenworthy Woods. The songscape had been turned up to eleven, mostly blackbirds, wrens, blackcaps and robins with backing vocals from chiffchaffs, woodpigeons, song thrushes and chaffinches. Blue tits very quietly went about their business in the hawthorn bushes and were hard work to see behind the leaf cover. I suspect the quiet times during the July post-breeding moult are going to be hard going for me, the long wet Autumn that was Winter has generated a lot of very lush vegetation.

Kenworthy Woods 

I walked through and headed for the Yew Tree Road bus stop. No matter what the time of day, or whatever the schedules and web pages tell me, the 101 I am going for always passes me at the corner before the stop. Luckily they're every quarter of an hour or so, I got the next and had a similar time to wait for the 25 home from Hough Green. 

Enchanter's nightshade, by the River Mersey