Longendale Trail

A blackbird fossicking about in the undergrowth

It was a milder, and decidedly damper, day but one suitable for going for a walk despite the stack of weather alerts. I'd had a shockingly bad sleep due to a combination of a very sore throat and a cat that expands to fit the bed she's trying to appropriate so I wasn't up for getting out early for the day.

The combination of cold weather and sunflower seeds finally brought the usual pair of coal tits into the garden — this past couple of months they've just been passing shadows and squeaks in the trees by the railway station. It gave me the chance to have a good look at them both, particularly the male which while darker and greyer on the back than the female didn't have the slate blue tones of the continental bird that passed through a few weeks back. The garden was also graced by the first blue tits of the year and a cameo appearance by the male bullfinch.

After having had a disappointing day of it yesterday the black-headed gulls were well understrength on the school field, just the four of them with two common gulls and two lesser black-backs.

I decided I really needed a walk, the fresh air might do the sore throat a bit of good and some exercise would be good for the aching knees. The older I get the more I come to appreciate walks which begin and end by bus stops and railway stations. I got the train to Hadfield with the intention of walking at least to the seat overlooking Bottoms Reservoir and back, ideally up over Valehouse Reservoir.

The weather had crowded in as we passed through Tameside. The course of the River Etherow could be traced by the mist rising above the fields and the dips and hollows in the hillsides were wreathed in low clouds. Walking down from the station the ground was slippery underfoot and I found myself doing that stiff-legged old man walking on ice walk that is nearly as stupid and hazardous on cold, wet tarmac as it is on ice. It came as a relief to get to paving stones and the more so onto the muddy gravel of the Longendale Trail. There were patches of ice here and there and the going was extremely damp without being muddy, but it was fine for walking.

Longendale Trail 

Jackdaws and woodpigeons clattered about ad lib. Blackbirds foraged in the trackside with wrens and robins. Every Winter it occurs to me how well female blackbirds blend into the colours of wet woodland. The trackside drain had become a bubbling stream and I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was by the grey wagtail flitting about the path by the car park. Coal tits and great tits called, blue tits and long-tailed tits quietly moved through the trees. More than one trackside spring fed the stream and boots were washed regularly.

The side path up to Padfield Main Road 

A trackside spring 

Bottoms Reservoir 

The fields overlooking Bottoms Reservoir were peppered with equal numbers of sheep and jackdaws. I scanned the reservoir in vain for any ducks or geese but there was a heron lurking in the trees on the far bank.

Above Bottoms Reservoir 

At this point the overriding gloom became rain. I decided not to get silly about it and head back to the station. I hadn't walked out the creaking of the knees but I'd got some exercise in them and the fresh air had blown away some of the cobwebs even if the throat was still very raw. Luckily there was no demand for Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan calls today. 

Frozen brambles 

On the way back I marvelled at the icicles on the brambles under the road bridge. The light was too lousy to be able to take a photograph of a treecreeper feeding on one of the trackside trees so I took a photo of the tree instead.

A tree

The sun came out as I arrived at Hadfield Station. It didn't last as long as Dinting Junction and it was raining again when we got to Broadbottom. The first walk of the year had been a pretty low-key dawdle but that's no bad thing.

Home thoughts

The difference a day makes

It was a bright and frosty morning after the floods of yesterday. Luckily we're well out of the flood zone here but most everywhere locally I might want to walk is still under warnings. It was also one of those mornings where wise old blokes with dodgy knees walk on the sunny side of the street where the ice has melted and even idiots like me think it's a good idea.

The trains were running more or less to schedule except when they broke down and it was a bright and sunny day and I really couldn't be bothered with it, which I'll come to regret given the weather warnings we have plastered all over the weekend.

Across the road yesterday's lake was a frozen pond, which seemed to appeal to the lugubriously playful nature of the rooks. The usual black-headed gulls and a common gull tried their best to dance worms out of the frozen ground without much success. Three herring gulls and three lesser black-backs turned up at lunchtime but didn't linger.

The spadgers in the back garden were giving me Paddington Bear hard stares all morning so I went out to get more food for them. Luckily there were some sunflower hearts in the shop so while the starlings are going through the suet pellets like a plague of locusts the other birds will have something to go at.

I've taken to putting out the leftovers from the cat's bowl onto a tray in the back garden for the magpies and jackdaws to tidy away. The robins and woodpigeons come to it as well. Today I found out that grey wagtails will eat cat food. I suppose a tuna is just a big tiddler when all's said and done.

Lazy New Year Day

A tad damp

The overnight rain had had its consequences, the morning trains cancelled due to floods and the gulls bathing in the lake that had been the school playing field. I'd opened the bedroom curtains to a grey wagtail strutting across the washhouse roof before flying over to feed on next door's lawn so I had no illusions but that it would be damp outside. I looked at the reports of floods all over and the record height of the river at Northenden and decided not to go for a walk along the river.

We played this game this time last year

The sun came out for an hour at lunchtime, coinciding with torrential horizontal rain which chased the starlings out of the flooded field the other side of the railway and into the dubious cover of the embankment sycamores. Seeing them all clustered together explained how the suet pellets and mealworms disappeared so quickly. 

Today's motley assemblage of gulls on the school playing field was thirteen black-headed gulls, three herring gulls, three lesser black-backs and a common gull. I was mildly surprised not to see any ducks.

The promise for the rest of the week is ice, wind and damp, which isn't putting off the collared dove and woodpigeons from singing.

• Black-headed gull 5 overhead 
• Blackbird 1
• Carrion crow 1
• Collared dove 1
• Feral pigeon 3
• Grey wagtail 1
• House sparrow 8
• Jackdaw 2 
• Lesser black-back 2 overhead 
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1 
• Song thrush 1
• Starling 27
• Woodpigeon 2

Your birdwatching records

This is the time of year when people decide they're going to start keeping records of the birds they see. Which is great, I would encourage you to do so. It's good to be reminded of the places you've been and the birds that you've seen during the year and it's often surprising how much you have seen. 

Lists

What type of list should you have and how should you record it? 

Any type of list you want and however you want. And don't let anyone tell you any different.

I often see posts in social media groups asking questions along the lines of: "Am I allowed to include birds flying overhead in my garden list?" The answer should always be simply: "It's your list, your rules." And don't let anyone tell you any different.

Sharing records

The rules are a bit different, but not all that much, if you decide you're going to pass on your records for other people to use. There are lots of different groups and organisations collecting and using observations from birdwatchers. And a bunch of different apps and websites that let you submit records of the birds you've seen and other details such as evidence of breeding or the age of the birds if you've got that information. They'll have explanations of what information they find useful and how to submit it and if you're not sure about something you can always ask them questions.

As a general rule of thumb, you might want to include birds you've seen in aviaries or collections in your year list — your list, your rules remember — but you wouldn't want to include these in the records you submit for other people to use. On the other hand, if you see an exotic bird in a wild setting I'd suggest you do submit that record: today's escapee may become tomorrow's invasive species and there are people who study these things who might find your records useful. 

That also solves the problem about unusual wildfowl turning up in unusual places, a subject of much and often heated debate. If a Coscoroba swan turns up on your local lake in Derbyshire it's a pretty sure bet that it didn't arrive from South America under its own steam and it's an escape. But what about wood ducks which are migratory and might go astray and arrive here but are also very popular in wildfowl collections? Or the ruddy shelducks which are deemed by default to be escapes though we quite happily accept the rising tide of herons, egrets and ibises they might encounter in their home range? Submit your sightings and let someone else fret about whether or not it's "really a wild bird."

What if you find something unusual?

This brings us to what happens if you see an unusual bird and you submit the record. 

You will be challenged, hopefully gently. Somebody will ask: are you sure? We can all make mistakes, if birdwatching was easy there wouldn't be scores of books and hundreds of web pages about bird identification and people still scratching their heads or arguing about what people have seen. You might, in all good faith, be mistaken. Or the person who's telling you you're wrong might, in all good faith, be mistaken. Or you might both, in all good faith, be mistaken. 

Be open to explanations as to why you might be wrong, that's a great way to learn. And try not to be too downhearted about it, which is easy enough to say but none of us like being squelched. Sometimes the challenge might feel a bit high-handed — sometimes it will be a bit high-handed — but most birdwatchers remember that they've been there and have many of the t-shirts and the days of "The bird wasn't there if the right people didn't see it" are mercifully long gone. 

And every so often the people asking: "Are you sure?" will help you find out why this time you're right and which were the key details for pinning down the identification.

Mysteries

It's also worth mentioning that it's okay to not be able to identify something. You might only be able to submit a record for a "possible thingy bird," or you might not be able to do even that and can only post a heads-up to a group or forum saying: "I saw something a bit different, I've no idea what it was, these details caught my eye, you might want to keep an eye out for it." If you're lucky someone might be able to provide an identification for it, more likely you'll get a selection of possibles. And if you don't you're no worse off and nobody's come to any harm.

The rules of keeping a birdwatching list

1. Your list, your rules.
2. Share records if you can but be open to people asking: "Are you sure?"
3. Enjoy your birdwatching.

2024: the backdrop to the birdwatching year

As promised in the round-up to last year's birdwatching, here's a sample of the landscapes and supporting cast that make even a quiet birdwatching day worthwhile.

I didn't get to All The Places but here's a few I did do.

Torside Reservoir

Martin Mere 

Manchester Ship Canal at Moore

Irlam Moss 

Marshside 

Grey squirrel, Pennington Flash

Snowdrops, Martin Mere 

Etherow Country Park 

Banks Marsh

Green Hill, Flixton

Scarborough Harbour

Stretford Meadows 

Stretford 

Irlam Community Woodland

Primroses, Longton Brickcroft

Giant's Seat Wood

Hodbarrow 

Chat Moss 

Orange tip, Stretford

Maidenhair ferns and ivy-leaved toadflax, Silverdale Station 

Dog violets, Stretford

Carrington Moss

Pennington Flash

Polystrichium (moss), Little Woolden Moss

Large red damselfly, Little Woolden Moss

Horse chestnut, Chorlton Ees

Dove Stone Reservoir

Dune pansies, Lytham

Silver Y, Martin Mere

Poppies, Hale

Twayblade, Stretford Meadows

Roe deer, Chat Moss

Bee orchid, Marshside

Common spotted orchid, Clifton Green

Little Orme

Chat Moss

Common darter, New Moss Wood

Stoat, Rishton Reservoir

Leighton Moss 

Formby Point 

Broughton Park

Chorlton Water Park