Mersey Valley

Ring-necked parakeet, Ivy Green

It was a cool, sunny day so once the morning's errands were done I had an early lunch, walked down to Urmston Lane and got the 23 to the edge of Chorlton for a walk along a bit of the Mersey Valley. 

I'd left behind a dozen spadgers competing with the squirrels for the use of the squirrel-proof feeders. The hairy hooligans have learned how to prise open the lids and only retreat when the coal tits peck them on the face, they can't do anything to retaliate as they're scrunched up inside the feeder and the coal tits are free to fly off. I don't know if it's mobbing behaviour or bad eyesight. There was a moment of harmony when they all congregated in the rambling rose bush with the great tits, robin and blue tits to make rude noises at the white cat that's taken over the territory now the poor old thing that lived with me has passed on. Which is a dead waste of time as it's deaf.

The usual dozen black-headed gulls on the school playing field were augmented today by four herring gulls and a couple of lesser black-backs. For some reason there weren't as many rooks and jackdaws as usual, perhaps the ground was that bit too wet for them. A common gull flew in as I walked down the road.

Hawthorn Lane 

I got off the 23 at Ryebank Road, crossed over and walked round onto Hawthorn Lane where the ring-necked parakeets were making a racket in the trees and great tits and blue tits bounced about in the undergrowth. I cut through Ivy Green where carrion crows called at each other over the clearing and over to Chorlton Brook where a teacher was using Loud Outdoor Voice to tell children that if they were very quiet they might see some birds. Mercifully it was the shrieks of parakeets and the calls of crows that were the constant backing track to the afternoon.

Ivy Green 

Chorlton Ees 

I crossed over into Chorlton Ees where the hawthorns were busy with blackbirds and the blackbirds busy with hawthorn berries. Mixed tit flocks tended to favour the alders and poplars, the magpies, jays and woodpigeons the oaks and sycamores. Somewhere in the depths of the hay meadow two cock pheasants were having a scrap.

River Mersey at Jackson's Boat 

The Mersey was running high, which wasn't a surprise after the recent weather but is a worry if we have another very wet Winter. A dozen mallards fussed about on the water by the bridge at Jackson's Boat. As I crossed the bridge I looked upstream and saw a buzzard flying between the golf courses either side of the river.

Barrow Brook, also a lot higher than usual

I walked along Barrow Brook to Sale Water Park. Unusually, there were no small birds about until near the end of the path when I heard a great tit in one of the hawthorn bushes. There were a few woodpigeons and magpies in the trees and a great spotted woodpecker called from the top of the canopy of one of the taller willows on the brookside.

Sale Water Park

The joints were feeling the cold and I was glad to come out of the shadows whenever I could, which wasn't very often as the sun was at treetop height. Mute swans and coots were dotted around the lake, more were mugging for scraps with a crowd of mallards and black-headed gulls by the landing stage. Cormorants loafed on jetties, half a dozen goosanders cruised midwater and the tufted ducks and great crested grebes took some finding. Way over the other side lesser black-backs and herring gulls were coming in to roost. I took the hint and called it a day.

I'm not sure of this, I think it's a white cheese polypore 

On my way to the tram I stopped briefly at the feeding station by the café. I could hardly see the feeders for great tits, blue tits and coal tits and a nuthatch had to peck its way through the crowd to get at the peanuts.

On the way home I bowed to the inevitable and bought a new pair of boots. Comparing and contrasting old and new I realised that the reason why the old ones had started to feel very loose was that a year's use by a fat old man had flattened and spread the soles and they were half an inch wider than they were when new.