Clifton Country Park

Cormorant

It was the calm before the storm. I asked myself if I fancied starting the week by gambling that trains might run to schedule. I put the two new Delay Repay compensatory tickets into my wallet and decided not.

I went over to the Trafford Centre and played bus station bingo, which led to me getting off the 22 at Clifton Cricket Club and walking down into the country park. I was rather hoping the exercise would take the stiffness out of my knees but if anything the slope down to the railway underpass and the mild, damp air just emphasised it.

A mixed tit flock bounced through the trees by the underpass, a goldcrest passing me by at arm's reach. Woodpigeons and magpies clattered about in the trees and black-headed gulls passed overhead.

There were more magpies, woodpigeons and black-headed gulls by the visitor centre. A small flock of redwings, just half a dozen of them, flew into the treetops.

Mute swan

The lake was awash with waterfowl. Mute swans cruised about, the adults very definitely hinting to the cygnets that it's time to move on. Gadwalls outnumbered the mallards and tufted ducks two to one and there were nearly as many coots. There were surprisingly few Canada geese, I hope they've not all been hit by avian flu. The most numerous, and noisiest by far, birds were the black-headed gulls. Hidden amongst them was a rather small-headed subadult herring gull which I spent a few minutes trying and failing to turn into a Caspian gull. I think it was just a particularly round-headed young female herring gull.

Mute cygnet

Tufted ducks

Clifton Country Park 

I was alerted to the mixed tit flock amongst the squirrels when a goldcrest flew into a hawthorn bush just in front of my face. The great tits and blue tits made themselves obvious, the long-tailed tits took a bit of finding. Blackbirds and song thrushes fed on berries and one of the song thrushes broke into song. They've been very thin on the ground this half of the year.

River Irwell 

I decided the knees weren't up for the walk through the woods into Radcliffe. To be honest, they weren't up for the walk back up to the bus stop in Clifton. A glance over my shoulder suggested a reason: the weather blowing in from the South was filthy.

Goosanders

Mallards dozed on the sandbanks on the bends of the Irwell and a couple of redhead goosanders drifted lazily upstream. A cormorant held its wings out to dry and settled down for a comprehensive preen.

Cormorant

Cormorant

Cormorant

Red Rock Lane

I walked past Bolton Water Treatment Works into Ringley. A grey wagtail fussed about the sluice from the filtration beds which were very busy with black-headed gulls. The weather caught up with me at Ringley Bridge, I caught the 512 to Bury and got the tram back to Stretford, the rain streaming down the windows along the way.