A tad damp

Grey squirrels in the back garden

The schedule for the week was intended to begin with a visit to Martin Mere but a yellow weather warning yesterday put the blocks on that, it's a long walk in rain of biblical proportions. It was looking like Cumbria and North Wales were going to miss the worst of it until last night when the warnings were revised. Any slight temptation I may have had to brave the crowds at Bempton where the possible Eastern crowned leaf warbler had turned out to be a pale-legged leaf warbler were tempered by North Yorkshire copping for it worse than us. I decided to be sensible and let the weather pass.

It's looking like it's going to be a long, wet lonely Winter so I'll have to come up with a strategy that doesn't involve pneumonia and trench foot.

I've been reviewing my coverage of Greater Manchester this year. The Northeast of the region has been pretty neglected, largely because now my train into Manchester doesn't stop at Deansgate for the tram link it's a real pain getting across the city centre to Victoria. I hadn't realised just how much it had been neglected until I noticed the distribution of my records of robins. The shape is similar for blue tits, great tits, wrens and chaffinches.

Map of this year's robin records in Greater Manchester to date.

So part of the Autumn and Winter campaign will need to include visits to Daisy Nook, Alkrington Woods and Watergrove Reservoir and a few stops offs in Heywood, Middleton and North Manchester. I also need to catch up with a few sites in Bolton, Wigan and Salford. I won't catch up with everywhere by any means but I can map out a few rainy day bus journeys that can take in a few short walks round parks, canals and reservoirs.

I also need to catch up with Cheshire. I've missed the dragonfly season on the Northwich flashes but they and Marbury Country Park are always worthwhile in Autumn. As are Frodsham Marsh and Lapwing Hall Pool. I probably won't get to the Sandbach flashes. And I do need a visit to Parkgate this Winter.

I've not done the exploration of Yorkshire I'd been planning on doing though I've visited a few sites that were new to me. I think any further exploration will be on a whim rather than a plan.

So that leaves Anglesey, because I've not been for a couple of years and Holyhead and South Stack can be productive even outside the seabird city breeding season; seawatching on the North Wales coast and Redcar Beach; and the Lake District, which I keep neglecting.

Now then: how much of that can be done in the pouring rain? I think I've worked out why I've neglected so many of these in the course of a lousy Summer.