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.