Stretford Meadows

Long-tailed tit

Another glum day, replete with glum news, I went for a walk round Stretford Meadows. It was only mid-afternoon but the local parakeets and jackdaws were heading off to roost and as I got to the garden centre a pheasant was singing in the trees by the car park.

The Transpennine Trail 

Robins and wrens sang in the trees, magpies frolicked in the open country, woodpigeons flew overhead. I decided I'd give up sloshing through the mud and retreated to the Transpennine Trail with my fingers crossed there wouldn't be too many cyclists.

The long-tailed tits were by far the most conspicuous members of the mixed tit flocks in the hedgerows as they bounced through the trees, the blue tits and great tits were muttered suggestions in the depths of the brambles. Blackbirds and dunnocks skittered about the verges and a song thrush flew over to have a look at me then pretended to be invisible, a trick that would have worked a week ago before the maples lost their leaves.

Early twilight on Stretford Meadows 

The light started to fade early, the robins and blackbirds shuffling and calling in the trees as they got ready for the twilight shift. I wandered off home. It was one of those days.

Starting the walk home