Manchester Ship Canal

Herring gulls

After a bad night's sleep caused in part by its being hot and humid, in part because Network Rail were working on the lines at 2am but mostly because the cat I live with was in training for a high school marching band I didn't feel like doing anything especially energetic. This was supported by the temperature quickly getting to the high sixties in the early morning. The Met Office thunderstorm warnings still held first thing so I had a think about what I was going to do with the day. If I was going for a walk at all it had to be somewhere with shelter readily to hand and an easy retreat. Probably as well to avoid relying on the trains as well given the number of cancellations at Humphrey Park. And somewhere near water so that if the small birds are coy there's the chance of waterbirds.

Salford Quays 

While I was dithering about I got my dinner, had a quick look at the dozen black-headed gulls on the school field, just in case, then got the 25 to the Trafford Centre. The idea was to get the 126 into Boothstown and have a walk along the canal. Then I saw the queue for this single-decker bus. I'd have half an hour to wait for the next bus to Worsley to pick up the canal from that end. The mercury had crept up to what my dad insists is the high twenties and I insist is the high seventies and I didn't fancy hanging round the bus station in that. So I got the 250 down to Wharfside and had a wander along the Ship Canal.

Black-headed gull

I was hoping to catch the adult yellow-legged gull that's been haunting Clippers Quay on and off this past couple of weeks. There was a raft of a couple of dozen large gulls with the herd of mute swans over by the Lowry, three lesser black-backs for every herring, and there were black-headed gulls all over the show.

Great black-backs and herring gulls 

I had no luck finding a yellow-legged gull but did find a couple of great black-backs, an adult and, I think, a first-Summer. They were loafing with the herring gulls that were keeping aloof of the crowd of black-headed gulls on the quay. Moorhens and coots fussed about amidst the litter on the mud, a heron stalked the shallows and mallards, mute swans and Canada geese drifted aimlessly in the heat.

Heron and black-headed gulls

Mute swan and black-headed gulls 

Herring gulls and great black-back 

Great black-back and herring gulls 

I walked down the path below Trafford Road Bridge where a blackbird was singing on one side of the canal and a goldfinch on the other. Pigeons and woodpigeons flew hither and thither, a few courting pigeons dancing about the girders of the bridges.

Pomona Dock 

Out on the Pomona Dock a couple of pairs of mute swans cruised about, seemingly intent on visiting every bay of the dock and taking a proprietorial interest in each. Cormorants fished in the middle of the canal and a few more lesser black-backs flew over. A canal cruise boat passed by and moorhens bobbed out of hiding at the bankside in its wake.

Bridgewater Canal at Throstle Nest Bridge 

I've not done this walk since the developers took over and built blocks of flats on the dock, I wanted to see if it was still possible to walk up to Cornbrook. It wasn't possible by walking along the dock, the path was fenced off. I backtracked a bit and joined Pomona Strand, time was you could walk down here and either turn onto Waterways Avenue to the wharf or else carry on down, cross the Bridgewater Canal then go under Cornbrook tram stop onto Chester Road. You can't now, that's fenced off, too. So all I could do was walk back to Pomona tram stop and walk down the Bridgewater Canal. I decided to just walk back down into Trafford Park and get the 250 back. Aside from a few pigeons and lesser black-backs it was a quiet walk.