Local patch

Great tit, Stretford

Even I had the sense not to go out for a walk yesterday. The wind and rain didn't stop the spadgers' sitting in the top of the rose bushes because they'd eaten all the sunflower seeds and what was I going to do about it. A wild and woolly night became a wet and breezy morning and a quick check of the disruption to the train services told me that if I was going for a walk it was going to be somewhere on a bus route and I wondered where would be okay underfoot.

An early morning errands had me finding a couple of woodpigeons picking the last of the berries from the street trees down our road. A handful of greenfinches flew South, one of the parakeets flew East and a couple of herring gulls flew in to join the black-headed gulls on the school field. On my way back the collared doves had woken up and were fighting over territories. I decided I'd need to let my knees warm up again before assaying a walk. By then I might have some idea where I was going.

The first bus at the stop was the 25 to the Trafford Centre so I decided I'd go over and play bus station bingo. The journey to the Trafford Centre suggested this was not a good idea. I know where the roadworks are (Barton) but I think there must also have been an accident somewhere, there was a big Emergency Diversion vibe to the shape of the traffic in Davyhulme. I'll be largely avoiding the Trafford Centre in the run up to Christmas.

So I walked home, which was quicker than getting the bus back (it also reminded me how pedestrian-unfriendly the Trafford Centre is). There's usually a lot of pigeons about the roof of the centre and around the bus station, today there were hardly any. There were more than plenty of gulls about, mostly herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls. More black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs flew by as I walked down Barton Dock Road.

Barton Clough 

My local patch was on my way so I had a nosy round. A traipse up and down the stretch of old freight line netted me the sum total of two magpies. It was dead quiet. I could see where the blackbirds had been, though, there was literally only one berry left on the Pyracantha bushes by the old trackside and that was half-rotten.

The park was similarly quiet, just a couple of magpies fossicking about on the football pitch. Just as I was telling myself I should have stayed at home and seen more birds I bumped into three blackbirds stripping the last of the berries off a hawthorn bush. A couple of robins and a dunnock complained as I passed them near the skateboard park. And I thought that was it until I got to the exit and bumped into a mixed tit flock in the trees by the gate. A dozen long-tailed tits gamboled about the newly bared twigs and branches with half a dozen blue tits and at least one coal tit while a goldfinch twittered in one of the treetops.

Lostock Park 

It'll be all change next week when the unseasonably mild weather gets replaced by Northern winds and a cold snap. I can't say the ageing joints are looking forward to it. I nipped out to get a few bags of bird food, they'll be needing it.