Stretford Meadows

Shaded broad-bar

It was one of days that make you feel you've been standing in an automatic car wash far too long and it's given you a headache. The effects of a few lazy days and the weather made themselves known and I needed to get some exercise to get the joints working again. The first attempt was thwarted by "an occasional shower" which rained stair rods for an hour.

I wobbled out mid-afternoon and ignored a knee that was insisting I should be at home reading Harold Hare comics. I got to the allotments and tossed a coin: heads Cob Kiln Wood, tails Stretford Meadows and tails it was.

The ever-reliable spadgers were bustling about in the hedgerows at the end of Newcroft Road and a blackcap was singing fit to bust. Another joined the blackbird, song thrush and goldfinches singing in the trees. The rest of the birds, and most of the small birds over the next hour, were picked up by their calls: the contact calls of long-tailed tits, great tits and chiffchaffs, the raucous chatter of parakeets and the scolds of wrens.

Stretford Meadows 

There was a steady overhead traffic of squadrons of woodpigeons flying from the fields of the Mersey Valley to the school fields of Stretford and vice versa. Lesser black-backs drifted southwards high in the clouds. I was surprised that for once there were no carrion crows, rooks or jackdaws passing over. Down on the ground magpies rummaged about in the long grass and goldfinches flitted between thistle patches.

The thistles are already almost done, the goldenrod and willowherbs are taking the reins.

It felt too dull to be expecting any butterflies so I was surprised to see my first small heath of the year flit across the path and disappear into a bank of vetch. I drifted down to the cricket ground, passing a few more goldfinches and magpies. Meadow browns skittered low over bramble patches and thistles. They gave way to gatekeepers and speckled woods as I walked into the trees. Great tits, blackbirds and chiffchaffs quietly shuffled about in the trees, not even caring to take alarm as I passed.

Kestrel

I followed the curve of the path back up the slope into open country, a couple of wrens taking exception along the way. It was good to see one of the kestrels again, hovering low over the long grass. Having moulted a lot of flight and tail feathers it struggled to keep an even keel on the hover, the lack of tail feathers in particular making it difficult not to pitch over to one side.

Flesh fly

Marmalade hoverfly
Hoverflies seem to like me.

The flies, bees, butterflies and moths were busy in the undergrowth as I walked along. A couple of swifts did low passes over the rise. I wasn't enjoying the walk at all, the weather was far too clammy but at least I was getting some movement back into the knees and they'd stopped being painful. As I drifted back down the hill a linnet passed low overhead. I'm surprised how rarely I see them here, possibly there are too many passing dogs rummaging about in the undergrowth. This doesn't seem to put off the whitethroats which churred at me whenever the path got too close to their bramble patches.

Gatekeeper