Mersey Valley

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

Spring passage is a process of overlapping waves, just as much as it's about the arrival of Summer visitors it's also about the departure of the ones staying over Winter. The last (probably) of our wintering common gulls massed on the school playing fields the other week and I was tripping over fieldfares the other day while chiffchaffs sang in trees.

Siskin

Siskins and redpolls are on the move, too, but less spectacularly and many of the ones round here aren't going very far, just from sheltered suburban woods and gardens to the Forestry Commission plantations on the Pennine hills. And some won't even be going that far, a few breed in the Mersey Valley though I haven't managed to bump into any of them. The siskin on the sunflower feeders this morning is almost certainly passing by, and a nice surprise it was, too. This is the fifth garden record, all in the first three months of the year and three of those in March. A redpoll would be a nice addition to the list, writes the boy who wants jam on it.

The crisp and sunny morning was scheduled to become a mild and sunny day so I decided on an amble along our bit of the Mersey Valley. The walking I've been doing this week (and the hot water bottle I've been putting on the knees when I get home) has got the joints working as they should, I ought to keep up the good work.

The house sparrows in the hedgerows by Newcroft Road were noisy enough to drown out the singing wrens. The trees by the car park by the garden centre were noisy with the songs of wrens, greenfinches, goldfinches and great tits. The screeching of parakeets rang out in the background. 

There was some evidence of recent rains.

Slightly damp underfoot
It's only once you tread on them you realise the palettes are floating.

Having reached terra slightly firmer I had a quick scan round. The buzzard was calling from the trees at the top of the mound and woodpigeons, carrion crows, jackdaws and lesser black-backs passed overhead. The female kestrel was hovering quite high above the slopes on this side, I saw no sign of the male today.

Kestrel

The songscape in the trees got more complicated: coal tit, chiffchaff, dunnocks, even a bullfinch joined in. Hearing the birds was one thing, seeing any of them was quite another as most of them kept deep in the willow woodland. A couple of blue tits obliged by bouncing through the birch scrub. My first comma butterfly of the year fluttered by and basked in the sun.

Comma

Stretford Meadows 

Magpies bounced about the open country, robins and wrens sang from hawthorn bushes and it wasn't until I was walking down the other side of the mound that I heard the first reed bunting. More birds passed overhead. A pair of stock doves flew by in tight formation, scarcely a hair's breadth between wingtips. I wondered where that mallard had come from and where it was going. The jackdaws seemed to be heading for the riverside rookery.

Stretford Meadows 
Looking back up the mound and remembering that this was the municipal tip I'm boggled by the amount of crap there must be under that grass.

Stretford Meadows 

Walking over to Stretford Ees 

Walking over to Stretford Ees the hedgerows were full of birdsong, a song thrush joining the others. A nuthatch called the alarm and I wondered if I was the culprit then everything went quiet. Singing was resumed once it was established the male sparrowhawk was intent on his display flight.

The pigeons were remarkably absent from under the tram viaduct. There's usually one or two around, even when they haven't got nests on the go.

The woods by Stretford Ees were quieter, just the robins, wrens and a couple of goldfinches sang though the parakeets carried on with their racket. A heron flew low over the tramway and over to the river. Two carrion crows escorted a raven off the premises. Crows escorting a sparrowhawk or buzzard will fly at their wingtips. Crows escorting a raven keep their distance. Ravens are more nimble in the air than crows and have a malicious sense of humour.

Not sure about this, it might be a brittlestem fungus or possibly one of the deceivers

We've had rain lately but I didn't think we'd had all that much so I was surprised that the river was running high and fast as I crossed over to Sale Water Park. A chap was putting his jet ski through its paces so there wasn't a lot on at this end of the lake.

Teal Pool 

There wasn't much on the Teal Pool on Broad Ees Dole, either, just a moorhen pottering about near the path and a mute swan in the reeds. It was a different story on the pool by the hide.

Tufted ducks and heron

The water was high but both islands were exposed. A heron loafed on the larger island with some teal and a pair of gadwalls. More teal and gadwalls dabbled in the pool with a pair of mallards. Behind them moorhens and dabchicks fussed about in the duckweed. Close to hand a pair of tufted ducks were feeding by the near bank. The heron decided to fly over and have a nosy round, a pair of Canada geese swam into view and took its place on the island. They swam off in a huff when the heron flew back. A chorus of whistling heralded the arrival of a buzzard on the far bank. I don't know what it was after, it wasn't ducks or water as it bounced off into the trees and out of sight.

Sale Water Park, with added jet ski 

The usual herd of mute swans were mugging for scraps on the slipway by the watersports centre in the company of a few Canada geese and mallards and a couple of coots. To my surprise nearly all the gulls were common gulls.

Coal tit

I stopped at the café to get a drink, on a childish whim I got a hot Vimto and was glad of it. Then I parked myself down to watch the bird feeders. I'd decided to haunt them in the hopes I might finally get a willow tit on the year list. Great tits were very much in evidence, coal tits and long-tailed tits barged in when they could, the blue tits seemed more interested in the insects in the nearby blackthorns.

On the way over a chap said he'd seen a very odd bird on the feeders. From his description I thought it might be a blue tit with a mite infestation. The bird appeared and confirmed my guess, and I could well see why he was puzzled. It had lost a lot of its head feathers, showing a lot of black skin, which is not uncommon with a mite infestation. This poor bird had it bad, it looked tatty all round and the yellows and greens of its plumage were greys and the blues a washed-out slaty grey. 

Forty minutes in a willow tit made an appearance, dashing in, grabbing a sunflower seed and retreating to cover to eat it. It bobbed out a couple more times but wasn't for having its photo taken. Which is a shame as it was in very bright breeding plumage, the underparts rich caramel cream and as big a pale wing panel as you could hope for identification purposes.

Hoof fungus

Barrow Brook 

I decided I'd make tracks for home. I'd have a long wait for the 248 to the Trafford Centre from Wythenshawe Road and I didn't want to be doing with trams on a Saturday so I'd have to walk up into Chorlton for the bus home. I walked down Barrow Brook to Jackson's Boat, the pathways fringed with wild garlic and the trees filled with the songs of robins and song thrushes.

Mandarin ducks

At Jackson's Boat I was surprised to hear a whistle from the river. I looked over and saw a pair of mandarin ducks steaming downstream. Another pair flew upstream as I watched them. I'm seeing mandarins a lot more often on the Mersey lately but I still don't expect to see them.

Hardy Farm 

I started walking through Hardy Farm. Chiffchaffs, robins and wrens sang and a great spotted woodpecker drummed in the treetops; blue tits and long-tailed tits bounced through the hawthorn bushes. I considered the long, boring drag up Hardy Lane to the bus stop on Barlow Moor Road. I could raise no enthusiasm for it. I took the muddy path into Chorlton Ees.

Chorlton Ees
Sadly, this path wasn't going my way. I crossed it between muddy tracks.

The songscape continued with great tits and blue tits joining in. A pair of bullfinches whistled sadly at each other in a cherry tree. A pair of jays silently bustled about in a sycamore tree. The parakeets wheeling about made enough noise for everyone.

Chorlton Ees 

It was late afternoon and the blackbirds joined in the singing in Ivy Green. Closer to the fringes house sparrows joined in, too. All tried to be heard over the parakeets and they were out-shouted by the unpaired carrion crows swaggering about on the green trying to woo the ladies.

Ivy Green 

The competition rolled over into Turn Moss, with dunnocks joining in the singing on Hawthorn Lane. I turned and walked up to Edge Lane for the bus home. I felt I deserved a pot of tea after five and a half hours' walk.