Longford Park

Juvenile magpie

I had decided to listen to the Test Match up to the tea break then go for a walk on the Salford mosses, the weather was heavy but cooler than it has been and teatime walks can be very productive, besides I need the exercise. It will surprise the reader not one jot to learn the train to Irlam was cancelled. I had the choice: I could wait an hour and a half for the next one, I could wait half an hour for the next train to Manchester and wait twenty minutes for the next train to Irlam (that doesn't stop at Humphrey Park), or I could get a bus to the Trafford Centre and try to connect with the 100 to Irlam or get a bus into Patricroft and get the 67. Or I could go for a walk.

Walking past the allotments woodpigeons sang from the rooftops and a robin sang from deep in somebody's back garden. I headed vaguely towards Stretford Meadows but without much enthusiasm. I was about to cross Stretford Road when I saw the 15 approaching. I've not had a proper walk in Longford Park for a while and I've not been on Rye Bank Fields yet this year so on a whim I got the bus into Firswood, got off at The Quadrant and had a potter round the park.

Longford Park 

The butterflies were more in evidence than the birds. I'd been seeing plenty of large whites at home, and the first holly blues for a couple of months, and there were more large whites fluttering about the community centre as I walked past into the park. Woodpigeons and a song thrush sang, ring-necked parakeets shrieked from the treetops and families of magpies chattered as the youngsters crowded their parents to see what they'd found to eat in the grass. Chiffchaffs squeaked as I walked past their trees and speckled woods danced about the bushes. Not for the first time I wondered how a blackbird could have a beakful of worms and still dig for more. Overhead there was a steady drift of ones and twos of lesser black-backs, a constant feature of the rest of the day.

Rye Bank Fields, the Mercian side of Nico Ditch

Rye Bank Fields was fairly quiet, not unexpected this time of year. Blackbirds and song thrushes sang, chiffchaffs and blue tits squeaked and tutted in the trees, woodpigeons and parakeets clattered about the treetops. Magpies and carrion crows rummaged about in the rough grass and shouted at each other from the trees and bushes. There was a profusion of meadow browns, which came as a bit of a relief after such a lean time for butterflies in June.

Rye Bank Fields, the Kingdom of York side of Nico Ditch 

I walked into Chorlton and got the 86 into Hulme and got the bus home. Although there were plenty of pigeons and woodpigeons about along the way they were more than outnumbered by lesser black-backs, they've been abundant this year the weather must have suited them.

It was probably as well I didn't mess about and go on a later walk across the mosses. It started raining as I got home and it became steadier. By the time I would have been making my way for Irlam and the bus back it was pouring down. Three dozen black-headed gulls flew in and started dancing for worms on the school playing field.