Black-tailed godwits, Leighton Moss

Wednesday, 30 April 2025

Bats

 I was getting quite giddy about our having a Nathusius' pipistrelle flying about the front garden until I noticed that the signal apparently from a calling bat coincided with a neighbour unlocking and locking his car door. 

I'd been wondering which species of pipistrelle we have flitting about the back garden some nights, the bat detector my brother bought me tells me they're not soprano pipistrelles, they're common pipistrelles. I don't mind either way, I was just curious which they were. It seems a bit mean to call them just "common" pipistrelles though. Why not "big, butch pipistrelles with deep manly voices?" or "Irish tenor pipistrelles?" It's always the sopranos gets the special treatment.

Blackleach Country Park

Blackcap

It was another warm, sunny day. The blackbird had been up long before the lark and the woodpigeons not much later. Even the spadgers were splashing about in the bath before half-six.

The first hayfever attack of the year always comes as a surprise. After spending an evening and a large part of the night wiping my nose I didn't have the energy for either of the two options I'd settled on for today, much to the dismay of that part of me that obsesses about numbers. The rest of me looks at the numbers and wonders what the fuss is about, the year list is a hundred and seventy something strong, I've seen more than a hundred species of birds every month so far, I'm seeing and hearing plenty on a lot of very pleasant walks. And chill…

I went over to the Trafford Centre to play bus station bingo. The 22 came first so the choice of walk was Clifton, Blackleach or Moses Gate and I plumped for Blackleach Country Park. I got off the bus in Kearsley and took the rough path leading straight to the motorway bridge, something I'd feel a bit iffy about had we not had weeks of dry weather. There were plenty of speckled woods skittering about by the path and a whitethroat singing from the field by the motorway.

Walking through the woodland

The birdsong in Blackleach Country Park was incessant, starting from the chiffchaffs in the trees as I walked over the bridge to the song thrush and goldfinches singing in the trees on my way out to get the bus on Bolton Road. There were plenty of chiffchaffs, robins, blackcaps and blackbirds, a few wrens and great tits, a garden warbler sang in the woodland and a blue tit sang by the lake. And there were plenty of magpies, woodpigeons and jackdaws. Most of the butterflies were large whites, a few speckled woods fluttered about the hedgerows, orange tips and brimstones on the grassy banks.

The lake

Tufted ducks

The mallard ducklings on the lake were already well grown, the mild late Winter must have kindled the fires in the blood. The tufted ducks had that raffish boys on the town look about them, the raft that was cruising about was a dozen drakes with a couple of ducks. The rest of the ducks will be being domestically busy. Coots, mute swans, Canada geese and a pair of great crested grebes drifted about apparently aimlessly, except when food was in the offing at the waterside in which case the grebes were left on their own midwater.

Mallard ducklings 

A few black-headed gulls loafed and flew about but didn't look settled. A couple of lesser black-backs flew through without stopping. 

Common terns

Four common terms looked to have staked a claim on one of the rafts. Three were content to loaf on the raft, one was very active and noisy and a couple of times flew in with a fish which it offered to its prospective partner.

The common terns bring the year list to 174.

Tuesday, 29 April 2025

Greenfield

Jackdaw, Holmfirth Road 

It was a bright June day so I took advantage of the cat's going out to sun herself to get some domestic chores done without interference, or without as much interference as usual anyway, and it was mid-afternoon before I went for a walk. A conversation with a friend reminded me that with any luck the wood warbler should be arriving at Binn Green soon. It's probably a week or two early but I thought I'd go and have a shufti just in case I might strike lucky. I didn't but it was a good walk.

I got the train to Greenfield and walked the length of Chew Valley Road to The Clarence and thence up Holmfirth Road. It's easier on the feet to get the 350 bus to The Clarence from Ashton or Oldham but that's such a drag if you're coming from my direction. Greenfield's jackdaws were busy on the rooftops and the wrens, blackbirds and robins were in full song. 

There had been a refreshing breeze at the station. As I walked through Greenfield as the school run met the roadworks there wasn't any breeze and I wondered if a warm traipse up Holmfirth Road was such a good idea after all. I needn't have worried, as soon as I was out of town the breeze was back and it was very pleasant walking. (This is one of those walks that's along a pavement on a gentle gradient but looks like you've been yomping across The Great Outdoors when you show people the photos.)

Holmfirth Road 

Song thrushes and willow warblers joined the songscape in the trees by the road. A little higher up the lambs giddied about in the open fields while jackdaws fossicked about between them and pheasants called from the field margins.

Dove Stone Reservoir 

I chose not to take the road down to Dove Stone Reservoir's car park for a walk round the reservoir. It's a long drag down to the car park and it was already absolutely heaving with cars. I'll have to do it again some time, I still harbour ambitions of taking that path up the Chew Valley but that long drag to and from the car park puts me off. Perhaps I'll make a day of it in the Autumn.

Dove Stone Reservoir 

So I stayed on Holmfirth Road and walked up to Binn Green as planned. Magpies, chiffchaffs and chaffinches joined the songscape in the trees, the chiffchaffs almost drowning out the song thrushes. Way down on the reservoir a noisy pair of Canada geese were keeping clear of the passersby.

At Binn Green I ended up not going far from the car park. There's a little rise at the side that provides an overview of both Dove Stone and Yeoman Hey reservoirs as well as some lightly wooded slopes in an open area by the woodland. The woodland and the reservoirs were busy with walkers, not all of whom were noticeably quiet. 

Binn Green 

A spot in a hollow by a rocky outcrop baffled the sound from the car park and woodland and I settled for a long listen and scan round. The chiffchaffs sang incessantly, drowning out the blackbirds, willow warblers and coal tits most of the time. Every so often I'd hear a song thrush in the woodland or a mistle thrush in the trees down by Dove Stone Reservoir. There was something sounding like a singing ring ousel coming from the birch and bilberry scrub further down the road but it was being drowned out by the chiffchaffs. A bit of a wander that way didn't pick it up again and I'm not claiming it on the basis of the little I could hear. Coal tits and chiffchaffs fidgeted about in the small conifers by the road, great tits and robins in the bushes by the larger trees and wrens hopped in and out of the bilberry scrub.

Yeoman Hey Reservoir 

I wandered back to the road where a meadow pipit was vigorously parachute-singing over the hillside across the way. I could hear the contact calls of great tits and blue tits and the songs of coal tits, willow warblers and chiffchaffs in the woodland but no wood warbler today. A greenfinch flew over and a couple of goldfinches twittered and sang in the roadside trees. A trio of mallards and a couple of oystercatchers flew low over Dove Stone Reservoir and a flock of sand martins wheeled about the water margins at the dam.

Dove Stone Reservoir and the Chew Valley 

Dove Stone Reservoir 

A trio of house martins circled high over the Clarence while I waited for the 350 into Mossley for the train back. I hadn't bothered the year list any but it had been a very nice walk. As the train arrived at Trafford Park Station on my way home I added a couple of swifts to the year list.

I wouldn't have noticed this magpie's nest in Piccadilly Station had I not seen the magpie fly to it.


Monday, 28 April 2025

Marshside

Snow goose

It had been a busy old time on Rimmer's Marsh over the weekend. Rimmer's Marsh is the name I can never remember for the stretch between Marshside Road and Hesketh Road at Marshside. Besides the little gull that eluded me earlier this month there were reports of a Temminck's stint, a green-winged teal and a snow goose. I'd be happy seeing any one of those so I headed for Southport and got the 44 to Marshside Road on a bright, hazy sunny day.

Goldfinch 

The traffic of house sparrows and starlings between the housing estate and the marsh was constant and gratifyingly heavy. Three house martins wheeling over the rooftops were equally welcome. Goldfinches and a couple of linnets were making inroads on the dandelion clocks along the path.

Lapwing 

There wasn't a lot on Sutton's Marsh (the bit of Marshside across the road from Rimmer's) that wasn't starlings or spadgers and what there was was two overlain grids of nesting Canada geese and lapwings. The geese apparently needed half a much space as the lapwings. Any magpies, jackdaws or herring gulls were seen on their way by angry lapwings. My first Canada goslings of the year grazed by the drain and gave no hint of how surly and bad-tempered they would be in adult life. A couple of skylarks sang over the marsh as I walked down.

Canada goose and goslings

Across the road, Rimmer's Marsh was wetter, the little pools and channels having mallards and black-headed gulls loafing at their edges. Nesting greylags, Canada geese, lapwings and black-headed gulls were peppered thinly across the marsh. The snow goose was a distant white shape by the golf course.

There were more signs of Spring by the pathside: large whites, peacocks and orange tips fluttered about, a sedge warbler sang from the reeds in the drain and a whitethroat sang from the gorse bushes at the end of the road.

Sutton's Marsh 

I'd been keeping an eye out for a little gull as I walked down the road, without any luck. I crossed over to the Junction Pool where I was told I'd missed it and it was now loafing just out of sight on one of the pools on the marsh. I had a scan round to see what was about besides the mallards, shovelers, tufted ducks and couple of dozen black-tailed godwits I'd seen from the road. I quickly found pairs of oystercatchers, redshanks and avocets amongst the godwits. The only little egret of the day flew by and over the road onto Sutton's. A second calendar year spoonbill flew past and headed towards Hesketh Road. A couple of swallows circled and swooped round the pool.

Nel's Hide was apparently seeing all the action so I headed that way down the roadside path. Goldfinches twittered about the bund, more large whites and orange tips fluttered low over the bank, skylarks and meadow pipits sang on the outer marsh and the wheeling swallows were joined by half a dozen sand martins.

Gadwall

Nel's Hide was busy for a Monday afternoon but there was plenty of room and everyone was friendly. Gadwalls, coots and families of mallards slowly drifted about the pool with a mute swan. Herring gulls loafed in a crowd on the far bank. Pairs of lesser black-backs bathed or courted by the waterside. 

Gadwalls and lesser black-back

The green-winged teal had been showing well amongst the teals to one side of the hide but had drifted further down into the reeds and sedges and out of sight. Redshanks and a few ruffs skittered about the waterside, a few of the redshanks breaking off feeding to strut about with open wings raised to show off to the ladies. 

I quickly spotted a little ringed plover skittering about the teal dozing on a muddy island. There's not a right lot dwarfed by a teal. A Temminck's stint would be about the same size as the plover so I set about scanning round for that. The two big problems with Temminck's stints are that they're mud-coloured and they aren't the most energetic of waders and this combination makes them easy to overlook, even if you could guarantee they weren't hidden behind a clod of earth or a clump of sedges. A ringed plover flew in and landed a couple of mudbanks away from the little ringed plover, its bright orange legs being a more immediate identifier than the differences in size and plumage.

Second calendar year black-headed gull
I was puzzled by this until it opened its wings and flew off.

I was having no luck finding the stint. Suddenly a chap with a telescope piped up: "I've found the stint if anyone wants it." I followed his instructions, it was on a patch of mud where I'd been watching the little ringed plover skittering around for a while before it moved on to the other end of the little island. For the life of me I couldn't see the stint, I could bet I was staring at it and looking straight through it. The chap with the 'scope took pity on me and invited me to have a look. I had been staring at it and seeing right through it.

Teal and Temminck's stint
A heavily cropped photo to give you a fighting chance of finding the stint.

I spent a little longer in the hide, just in case the green-winged teal might make an appearance or the little gull fly by then made my way back. The snow goose had come in to join the Canada geese on the pool. It's been here, on and off, a couple of months and is officially of uncertain origin. Waterfowl are assumed to be of uncertain origin until proven to have come here under their own steam. It's not unusual to find a snow goose this time of year tagging along with the pink-feet heading back North, it's unusual (and hence officially suspicious) for one to linger. On the other hand, it's not unusual to find a pink-footed goose or two lingering all Summer on the Ribble Estuary after having missed the bus home for one reason or another and not wanting to make the run back North on their own. And it's always nice to get a close look at a snow goose.

Snow goose

The Mediterranean gull was a fluke. I'd just looked over the nettles on the bank and there it was with a few black-headed gulls. I couldn't get the white wagtail running along the near bank into the picture.

Mediterranean gull, black-headed gulls and lapwing

I sat by the Junction Pool a while on the off-chance the little gull might stray back. House martins had joined the swallows and sand martins which made for a nice confusion. The sedge warbler and the whitethroat sang. Coots and godwits squabbled. Redshanks courted. I checked every small gull that flew about or bathed in the pools and they were all black-headed. I wasn't disappointed in the least, I'd seen plenty and there are worse ways of spending a Monday afternoon.

It might have been while I was chatting to a couple that the little gull came in. I didn't see it. I was scanning round the landscape, just in case, when I saw a group of black-headed gulls I hadn't seen before bathing in one of the pools. Then I noticed that the one standing to one side at the back was significantly smaller than the others. Just in case it was wishful thinking I had a look round elsewhere and came back to it. It was standing side-on to me, was significantly smaller than the others and was an adult little gull. A nice bonus of a bird.

Stonechat

As I walked back up Marshside Road for the bus a pair of stonechats told me to keep on moving out of their territory.

Did you find the Temminck's stint?

Gorse


Saturday, 26 April 2025

Mersey Valley

A murder of crows, Ivy Green

It was a grey day, jobs had been done and I wanted to walk out the twinges in the joints so I went for a late afternoon walk through Ivy Green and Chorlton Ees.

Hawthorn blossom

The chiffchaffs and blackcaps were singing with the robins and blackbirds in the trees as I walked down Hawthorn Lane. The titmice were busy flitting about and every so often a wren would bob up on a stick and disappear just as suddenly. A pair of parakeets were raucous as they flew about the treetops.

I walked into Ivy Green, the songscape in the trees being pretty much the same but the parakeets just a distant echo. Somewhere on the other side of the trees a great spotted woodpecker was busy drumming on a tree branch. Walking through the open meadow I could hear a few whitethroats but they were all singing from the depths of their hawthorn bushes. A murder of crows bounced about in the meadow. There were eight of them all told and though a couple of them had a brownish sheen to their wings I couldn't be sure that they were this year's youngsters, they looked a lot too sleek.

Chorlton Brook

There were more parakeets in the trees by Chorlton Brook but they were drowned out by a song thrush. I always have a look for any birds on the brook expecting, and usually finding, nothing. Today a pair of mallards were lurking at the bend away from the paths.

Chorlton Ees

The woods on Chorlton Ees were noisy with song thrushes, blackbirds and chiffchaffs with a supporting cast of robins, wrens and blackcaps. A pheasant called from the wet meadow and whitethroats  and greenfinches sang from the bushes. This time of year it's easy to just coast and tick off what you hear, it's already getting difficult to actually see the small birds and half the trees are still only in bud.

Water level measure by the sluice gates by Sale Ees

A drake mallard was the only bird on the Mersey at Jackson's Boat. I was struck by how low the river was running. It really has been a very dry Spring. The birdsong was incessant, the whitethroats, greenfinches, goldfinches and robins in the bushes on the Lancashire side of the river competing with the blackbirds, robins, chiffchaffs and song thrushes in the trees on the Cheshire side. There was so much noise I didn't realise the absence of the usual troop of parakeets.

Marsh marigolds, Barrow Brook

I crossed the river and walked down Barrow Brook, a nuthatch in the trees by the path and the whitethroats over on Sale Ees adding variety to the song. A bullfinch wheezed invisibly in a hawthorn smothered in blossom, a treecreeper squeaked as it ran up a tree trunk, blackcaps and dunnocks sang from elder bushes and woodpigeons and parakeets clattered about in the treetops. A drake mallard just about managed to get its feet wet in the brook.

Barrow Brook

I got to the end of the brook and made the biggest mistake of the day, the week in fact. I didn't feel I had the legs for the walk through Sale Water Park and back into Stretford, I was feeling the pull of the tweaked heel and didn't want to undo the good work the walk had done. The 248 bus stop in Sale Moor was quarter of an hour's walk away and the bus was due in twenty, I decided to go for that and, depending how late it was running, either get the train home from Flixton or the 25 home from the Trafford Centre.. I got to the bus stop with seven minutes to spare before it was due. Twenty-five minutes later I concluded it wasn't late, it wasn't coming so I walked down the road for the bus into Sale so I could walk over to Washway Road get a 263 bus back to Stretford. When that didn't come I set off walking for Stretford and ended up hobbling to a bus stop just in time to get the next bus as it miraculously arrived on time. In the end it took ten minutes longer to get back by bus than it had taken to walk. And next time I shall. 

Friday, 25 April 2025

Wellacre Country Park

Mallard, ducklings and a whole lot of hawthorn petals, Dutton's Pond 

Despite, or because of, waking up way before dawn and not being able to get back to sleep it was mid-afternoon before I could persuade myself to go for a walk. I got the train into Flixton and had a couple of hours pottering about Wellacre Country Park.

En route from the station I stopped by Flixton Bridge to see what was on the river. A pair of mallards were hidden in the depths of the foliage on the Cheshire bank, a Canada goose loafed on a little island downstream that was under a foot of water a month ago and a grey wagtail skittered about on the waterside.

Green Hill 

Fly Ash Hill Green Hill was noisy with warblers. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs drowned out the regulars in the trees, every patch of gorse or clump of hawthorns on the hill had a singing whitethroat. Pairs of blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits were busy foraging in the trees and bushes, particularly favouring the young oak trees in full flower. There was an edge to the wind that seemed enough to put the butterflies off in the open ground, there was a crowd of speckled woods and large whites in the shelter of the trees.

Green Hill 

Walking down the path through the trees by the railway line I was hit by the scents of the trees. Most of the blossoming trees are sweetly scented though hawthorns, and to a much greater extent the rowan blossoms to come, smell unfortunately like fish glue. Poplars and, to a lesser extent,  willows smell of aspirin. I'm perhaps too used to birch trees and sycamores to notice their scent. Oak blossom smells like white pepper left too long in an opened packet. A garden warbler added to the songscape while I was sniffing the trees.

Walking by the railway line

Hart's tongue fern 

Dutton's Pond 

More blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang by Dutton's Pond. Moorhens were heard in the flag irises, only one could be seen. A bunch of drake mallards cruised about at one end of the pond, a duck with her brood at the other and a lone black-headed gull circled low over the pond for no apparent reason.

I walked beside the railway line to Jack Lane. The trees on the embankment, normally noisy with small birds, were full of furtive rustlings and the occasional contact calls of titmice and robins.

Jack Lane 

Jack Lane was noisy with the incessant singing of three reed warblers, two in the deep reeds on one side of the causeway, one in the reed-fringed pools on the other. They drowned out the chiffchaff and wrens singing in the trees on the fringes. A buzzard floated low overhead, leading to the pair of nesting carrion crows leaving their station to watch its progress away from the treetop.

Jack Lane 

Way over the water treatment works by the locks a dozen black-headed gulls were making a racket over the filtration pans and a couple of dozen sand martins were zipping round high over them. Closer by, the field that had been vacated by the horses was carpeted with woodpigeons, starlings and magpies, the starlings darting back and forth to their nests in the eaves of the housing estate. The horses had been moved on to the field between the nature reserve and Wellacre Wood, the last of the ponies were being walked through as I passed by.

Wellacre Wood 

Wellacre Wood was eerie quiet. Great tits and blue tits were about as fleeting shadows in the undergrowth, the blackbirds and robins as shapes shooting across the paths. All the birdsong was going on at the fringes of the wood by the school, the great tits, robins and blackbirds joining in with the chiffchaffs and blackcaps. The usual pair of parakeets were making noises in the treetops by the school playground.

I got the 256 home but decided to stay on and get a food shop done in Stretford, save me making another trip out. I'm glad I did, I added a house martin to the year list.

Thursday, 24 April 2025

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks

I'd started out very tired indeed before what turned out to be a busy night so I wasn't feeling up to much today. Added to that an attack of male pattern hypochondria had me largely reeking of tiger balm, save the right sock which reeked of the camphor and menthol I'm using to ease the Achilles tendon I tweaked badly a couple of weeks ago. Basically, I'm old and everything hurts.

As I didn't feel up to much I thought I'd go over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks and poke my nose into Keg Wood to see some of the bluebells, job done then back well before teatime.

Etherow Country Park 

I got off the 383 at Compstall Village, crossed the road and had a look at the pool by the car park. The usual crowd of pigeons and jackdaws milled about; there were still a few black-headed gulls about, mostly second calendar year birds still with bits of brown to their wing coverts; Canada geese made a racket, mallards dabbled about, a pair of tufted ducks hid in plain sight. I see a lot fewer coots here than I used to, the moorhens are outnumbering then these days.

Very nearly all the mandarin ducks were drakes, the ducks being busy elsewhere. The couple of ducks that were about were conspicuously escorted by their partners. There's proportionally more drakes than ducks here lately, last year's hatching seemed to be mostly drakes. They were ridiculously picturesque in the light dancing about on the little canal.

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin ducks

There's still a lot of work going on at the head of the canal and the top basin's still dry.

River Etherow 

The river was fairly low and I had hopes of seeing grey wagtails and/or dippers but only saw a couple of drake mandarins suggesting how they would look in the riverine forests of East Asia. I turned to have a look at the weir and a grey wagtail bobbed up to feed on the exposed rocks.

Grey wagtail

I wondered if I could be bothered with Keg Wood today but I wanted to see the bluebells before they went over. I'd give it ten minutes' once-over. I emerged two hours later.

Star of Bethlehem 

The wood felt a bit quiet at first: a blackbird, a chiffchaff and a robin singing, a great tit calling and a couple of wrens bustling about in the undergrowth. After the success of my last visit I was tempted to drop down to Keg Pool and walk round but decided instead to walk straight to Sunny Corner and lay the ridiculous bogey I've had for this walk once and for all. I was rewarded by singing blackcaps, robins, chiffchaffs, blackbirds, coal tits, woodpigeons, great tits and wrens. I accidentally found a couple of blue tit nests, I suspect I found where nuthatches and robins were nesting, too. I'm one of the move along, nothing to see types when it comes to birds' nests.

Keg Wood 

Oh, and the bluebells were lovely, their scent hung in the dips of the walk in the stillness of the wood.

Bluebells 

Bluebells 

On the bend before Sunny Corner I heard a call which was unfamiliar but I knew I'd heard before. A minute or so later I heard it again in the trees and was surprised that I recognised it as a pied flycatcher, I only hear them once or twice a year. I looked up the call of the pied flycatcher on my 'phone and it confirmed my guess. It's not unlike the call of a chiffchaff or willow warbler but it's brisker and has more of a zip to the ending. If you've ever heard someone run their fingernail across a tortoiseshell comb you'll get the idea. I was pleased to hear one but try as I may I couldn't see it.

I had a sit down at Sunny Corner to watch the trees. Any hopes of hearing another flycatcher were drowned by a particularly loud song thrush. Blue tits, blackbirds and magpies flitted about. A great spotted woodpecker worked its way along a branch before being mobbed by a great tit. I'd been sitting still a while when a carrion crow came over to see if I was dead yet.

Stitchwort and bluebells 

Keg Pool 

I walked round and dropped down to Keg Pool where there were more mandarins and mallards and a couple of mute swans were sitting on nests. A couple of large ducks flew over, they weren't mallards or goosanders. They had a look of Egyptian geese but I couldn't get a good enough view of them before they were gone. They may well have been a couple of those "mullard ducks" (Muscovy x mallard) that have been seen here before.

By Keg Pool 

For some reason I keep taking the wrong path along the lake and find myself climbing the steep grassy slope up to the orchard by the cottage. My annoyance with myself for doing it again was immediately dispelled as I listened to my first garden warbler of the year singing from the depths of one of the trees while a blackcap sang from one of the side branches. The rushed scratchiness of the garden warbler was obvious against the bubbling tones of the blackcap though there were still moments when I couldn't be sure which of them I was listening to. A female blackcap added to my portfolio of there was a warbler there a moment ago photos.

Keg Wood 

It was late teatime as I walked back through the wood. In the cooler air the scent of the bluebells had been replaced by the wild garlic which was still very pleasant. It's a good walk, I don't know why I put myself off it, I'm being stupid. Despite all the dips and climbs the joints and tendons were perfectly fine, I hoped there would be plenty of leg room on the buses home so I didn't undo the good work by having to sit cramped up (I struck lucky).

Mandarin duck 

As I walked back to the car park a pair of mandarin ducks dropped down from the trees to the path and were very insistent that I had food on me and weren't for believing I didn't.

Mandarin drake