Orrell

Great crested grebe, Orrell Water Park 

It was another sunny morning and the back garden was full of baby spadgers. I'd overslept which knocked the planned adventure on the head. I was also feeling a bit train-averse so I pottered about inconsequentially all morning.

Orrell Water Park 

It would be a shame to waste yet another glorious Summer's day with a moderate pollen count so a sequence of whims found me at Orrell Water Park. 

Great crested grebe 

It was a quiet afternoon on the lakes. Mallards and Canada geese dozed on the banks or floated about listlessly with the great crested grebes while moorhens fossicked about on the grass with the woodpigeons. A family of coots confirmed their reputation for bad temper by the three chicks getting into a fight and the parents swimming over and giving them a right good pecking. The goslings and ducklings were better behaved.

Canada goose

Moorhen 

Chaffinches, robins, blackbirds and blackcaps sang in the trees around the lakes while goldfinches and greenfinches twittered about. There were more of them in the light, wet woodland of Greenslate Water Meadows and they were more readily seen as they went about their business. A coal tit sang at the branching of the paths; as is becoming usual lately the sightings of blue tits and great tits owed more to luck than skill. A couple of large whites fluttered about and I was disappointed not to see any damselflies or dragonflies.

Greenslate Water Meadows 

Greenslate Water Meadows 

The water in the stream was low, in patches even dried out, and it was hard to find wet mud in the boggy stretches of flag irises and sedges. There was enough water in the stream for moorhens to paddle about in and for blackbirds and magpies to get a bath.

Magpie having a bath 

I completed a circuit of eight toddle round, had a chat with a couple of people, bumped into a noisy crowd of young starlings and walked round to the station for the train back. While I was waiting there was a constant serenade by a robin, a blackbird, a dunnock and a chiffchaff with interpolations by a couple of greenfinches. 

The journey back demonstrated the difficulty of trainbound birdwatching this time of year: large stretches of the view between Hart Common and Agecroft were a wall of impenetrable green.