Local patch

Barton Clough 
Somebody set to some of the bramble patches with a strimmer last year. The consequence being a sea of goldenrod this year. The goldfinches don't seem awfully keen on the seeds.

It was a day of perpetual twilight. The spadgers in the back garden turned out en masse to bully the squirrel off the feeders and the magpies had the last of the rowan berries before the next wave of blackbirds passed through.

I was tired and out of sorts so didn't feel much like putting myself through my paces, such as they are, so I thought I'd have a wander round my local patch and then move on to play bus station bingo at the Trafford Centre.

Lostock Park 

Unlike my visit the other week it was very quiet indeed in the park, even quieter than it had been during the Summer. Walking through into the waste ground on Barton Clough it became apparent that nearly all the songbirds had decided the day hadn't been worth getting up for. There was a lot of chunnering going on in the brambles as I passed by and the Pyracantha bushes still held blackbirds. A small charm of goldfinches flitted overhead and disappeared into the hawthorns on the United Utilities land. Woodpigeons clattered about and headed to roost in the trees behind the school. Black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs flew overhead while three herring gulls shouted the odd from the factory roofs on St. Modwen's Road.

• Black-headed gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 6
• Blue tit 2
• Carrion crow 2
• Dunnock 1
• Feral pigeon 1 overhead
• Goldfinch 7
• Great tit 2
• Greenfinch 1
• Herring gull 3
• Lesser black-back 5 overhead
• Magpie 2
• Robin 3
• Woodpigeon 5
• Wren 1

I waited twenty minutes in the rain for the 250 bus that was always due to arrive in four minutes' time. I asked myself if I could really be bothered. I couldn't. I went home.