Local patch

I had a lunchtime stroll through the local patch on my way for the bus to the Trafford Centre. I expected a very quiet time of it. And I was wrong.

Lostock Park 

It started off gently enough with just the usual quota of magpies and a lot of singing robins. Then I started noticing the shapes out on the football pitch and realised they were mistle thrushes. I'd given up on them, they hadn't been around for months, and now seven turn up. My not finding any treecreeper today was tempered by one of the dog walkers telling me he'd seen a family of them here in the Summer. 

Barton Clough 

There were a few blackbirds about in the park. There were a lot in the berry-laden shrubs by the old freight line. I almost certainly missed some. Ditto the members of the noisy mixed finch flock bouncing round in one of the few big maples that still have a green canopy of leaves.

• Black-headed gull 1
• Blackbirds 15
• Blue tit 1
• Bullfinch 1
• Carrion crow 3
• Feral pigeon 8
• Goldfinch 21
• Great tit 5
• Greenfinch 4
• Herring gull 3
• House sparrow 1
• Lesser black-back 5
• Magpie 7
• Mistle thrush 7
• Pied wagtail 1
• Robin 11, 7 singing
• Woodpigeon 12
• Wren 1