Wellacre Country Park

Jack Lane local nature reserve 

Having finally caught up with some sleep I didn't want to entirely waste what promised to be the last day of Summer, nor mess about with trains, so I had a late afternoon wander round Wellacre Country Park.

Wellacre Wood 

Wellacre Wood was deathly quiet. A robin sang from one of the nearby gardens but in the wood itself all I heard was the very occasional quiet contact call from somewhere in the undergrowth. A blackbird, a blue tit and a dunnock silently flitted between bushes. As I walked along I weighed up the nest boxes high in the trees, every single one of them had been attacked by great spotted woodpeckers.

Wellacre Country Park 

Passing out into open country I noticed the sky was rapidly clouding over from the West, which was odd because the wind at ground level was coming from the East where the sky was clear. The horses had been moved between fields, the carrion crows following the horses, the magpies fossicking about the fields left behind and the woodpigeons rummaging about the margins of both. About a hundred starlings sat on the electricity pylons by Irlam Locks. I think we've had swallows and martins for the year here.

Jack Lane was even quieter than Wellacre Wood. A couple of woodpigeons sat in trees, magpies flew over, a pair of bullfinches whistled sadly on the railway embankment.

Jack Lane local nature reserve 

There was another pair of bullfinches on the embankment near Dutton's Pond, together with some great tits, blue tits and a chiffchaff. Half a dozen mallards dabbled on the pond, moorhens were heard but not seen. Ditto the ring-necked parakeets shrieking in the trees beyond.

There were more great tits and a chiffchaff with the robins on Green Hill. There was also a thin passage of red admirals, all fluttering Southwards.

As I walked down to Flixton Road a heron flew low overhead and half a dozen mallards lurked under Flixton Bridge. As I waited for my bus waves of woodpigeons, jackdaws and parakeets started heading to roost even though it was only teatime. I was fifty yards from home when it started raining.