Stretford Meadows

Long-tailed tit

It was a pleasant and still relatively mild sort of a day. The spadgers and great tits quietly found the mealworms I put out yesterday then made a lot more noise about my filling up the sunflower feeders this morning. I put some suet pellets out, too, I think the coming week's weather warrants them.

Common gull dancing for worms 

I've been seeing the occasional common gull on the school playing field with the usual dozen black-headed gulls this week. Today one was close enough to the fence for me to get a photo. It's not often safe or wise to take photos of the school field and the odd times that it is there generally isn't anything to photograph so I took the opportunity while I could. They've been a few weeks later than usual which I think is a reflection of the mild extended Autumn we've had. A rather small juvenile herring gull not a lot bigger than the common gull made me scratch my head a bit but I couldn't turn it into anything but a rather small juvenile herring gull.

Juvenile herring gull

I didn't want to have anything to do with Sunday public transport so I limited myself to a wander round Stretford Meadows. On my way over I noticed that the starlings are congregating in the trees by the allotments, just three dozen of them but after a largely starling-free Summer it's good to see them in any sort of numbers.

Business as usual 

After the recent downpours the paths onto the meadows had returned to normal. It was fun while it lasted. I decided not to take the path by the Newcroft Nursery car park, I walked a way down the Transpennine route and took the steep path up the rise of the meadows.

Not all the long-tailed tits were willing photographic models

A mixed tit flock, a dozen long-tailed tits and a handful of blue tits, bounced through the trees by the car park. A couple of robins and a blackbird made themselves known. I bumped into a second, smaller, mixed tit flock by the motorway bridge and this one included a couple of great tits, too.

The Transpennine route 

The knees were not altogether happy about my choice of path up the rise and we were all happy when I got to the top. Jays and magpies made a racket as they flitted about the trees in the open meadow, the jays were collecting and caching acorns while the magpies were busy in the apple trees. Carrion crows, jackdaws and lesser black-backs flew overhead, three woodpigeons flew by and finches flew to and fro. Most of the finches were greenfinches heading to roost in the brambles even though it was still only mid-afternoon, a few goldfinches and chaffinches flew by. It was nice to see a flock of a dozen linnets pass overhead, I don't often see them on here these days.

Stretford Meadows 

I took a zigzag course across the meadows, trying to stick to the metalled maintenance paths wherever possible. Robins, blackbirds and wrens complained as I passed by. A buzzard in the trees by the cricket pitch was very vocal but difficult to find as it had taken cover from a group of magpies intent on giving it a hard time. The male kestrel was easier to spot atop his usual tree after a long absence.

The male kestrel was back in his favourite tree

At last I came to the path through the woods taking me into Stretford town centre. A couple of parakeets made a racket as they came to roost. I blame them for upsetting the great spotted woodpecker that flew into a bate and spent the next five minutes shouting over them. There was another mixed tit flock in the undergrowth here, invisible under cover and betrayed by their quiet contact calls. I noticed a couple of redwings in the top of one of the bare trees. The Merlin app picked them up, as well as the blackbirds, robins and long-tailed tits in the trees. I'll forgive it for mistaking my left knee for a firecrest.

Bramble