Mersey Valley

Ring-necked parakeets, Chorlton Water Park 

It was another cool, grey but dry day. The last time I'd checked the clock before finally getting to sleep it was half-six so I really didn't feel up to the planned expedition and tried to cadge an extra hour's sleep instead. (It had been my own fault: I'd wanted to get some writing done but had to wait until the cat had gone to bed before getting started — cats and keyboards and all that — and by the time I got to bed myself my mind was too active for sleep.)

Flood damage, Northenden

I went into town to renew my monthly travel card then got the 101 down Princess Road and got off at the river. I thought a walk might wake me up and clear my head a bit. The effects of the New Year flooding at Northenden were very noticeable, including a spectacular landslip on the Cheshire side of the bank. The river was back to normal levels now and quietly flowed along in all innocence. A couple of mallards dabbled by the bank and a pair of goosanders flew up and down stream for no apparent reason.

River Mersey 

I walked downstream on the Lancashire side of the bank under Princess Parkway and on to Chorlton Water Park. The litter of flood was everywhere, all the bankside saplings were festooned with rubbish. At its height the water was twelve feet above usual levels and was lapping over the higher of the two banks either side. The path on the lower bank felt substantially closer to the river than usual, in places it looked like it had been scalped and scoured. The combination of jetsam and fresh ground was keeping the carrion crows occupied on both sides of the river.

Over in Kenworthy Woods the parakeets and magpies were shouting in the trees, here on the Chorlton side great tits and robins called and sang from the hedgerows.

Gadwalls and coots

It's half term so Chorlton Water Park was busy, which was good news for the black-headed gulls, mute swans and mallards hanging round the banks for a feed. They were joined by a few coots, common gulls and a couple of young herring gulls. The Canada geese were a bit too preoccupied with their love lives for that sort of thing. The adult great crested grebes were sporting full breeding plumage, the first-Winter birds were still in blacks and greys. A raft of a couple of dozen gadwalls drifted about midwater, not something you see every day. Further out yet half a dozen goosanders cruised by the far island.

Chorlton Water Park 

I walked round the end of the lake and decided to pack it in. I was just too tired, a combination of brain fog, eye fog and aching joints. Even as I was walking down to the bus stop at Southern Cemetery, though, my mind was coming up with suggestions as to where I could move on to for another walk. I managed to be sensible and dismissed nearly all of them. Which is why when the bus got into Urmston I didn't stay on to the Nag's Head to make a connection with a bus home, I got off at Davyhulme Park and had half an hour's wander before walking the mile home, the sort of decision-making that goes on when the rational mind is asleep at the wheel. (Mind you, the rational mind has its moments.) 

I often wonder why I nearly always pass by without stopping here, the reason is that it's a very quiet park as far as birdwatching's concerned. I don't know why, there are plenty of trees and bushes and even a couple of water lily ponds but I get more birds in my back garden than I find here. Just one of them things I guess.

Davyhulme Park 

I went home, made a pot of tea and got twenty minutes' kip which made me feel almost human. I'd have got more sleep but I had the window open and the long-tailed tits and goldfinches were busy on the feeders and were being noisy eaters.