Sale Water Park

Mallard

March had been doing that coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion rubbish again. A night of ferocious horizontal rain was followed by a bright, sunny dawn and a howling wind. The blackbird had started singing at five to five. The others followed an hour later, first the collared dove, then the carrion crow, next door's starling squeaked out a phrase and the robin made a few noises. It was not so much a dawn chorus as a roll call.

The last time I looked at the clock before I finally dozed off it was ten to eight. I breathed a sigh of relief: I wasn't going to hurl myself about the West Lancashire plain with the wind blowing a hooley. I had no idea what I actually was going to do, mind, and it was probably this conundrum that persuaded what's left of my mind to shut up for the night and get a couple of hours' rest.

This time of year common scoters are migrating across England every night. If you're lucky, and if there's not a lot of traffic noise round your way, you may hear them flying over, I've heard them a couple of times late at night. Some of them stop off for a rest on inland waters along the way, especially if the weather's been bad, and there were a lot of birds recorded from Northwest England this morning. A female was reported at Sale Water Park first thing. I decided I'd get my monthly travel pass renewed then bob over to Sale Water Park to see if it was still around, with a bit of luck the weather would have put off the jet ski enthusiasts who use the lake at the weekend.

I renewed my travel pass, reminding myself that if I survive a while longer, and if the government doesn't move the goalposts again, what I just paid for one month would cover sixteen years of rail and tram top-up to a bus pass. I got the 263 from Oxford Road and got off at Poplar Road in Stretford. I worried I may have to call the whole walk off, it teemed down with rain as the bus went through All Saints and Hulme but by the time we got into Old Trafford the sun was shining. It was a couple of minutes' walk down to what I still think of as the bus stop,  even though it was moved thirty-odd years ago, and took the path through the hedge, across the sports field to the corner and dropped down onto the Transpennine Trail. This is one of those unofficial paths you don't see on maps but are well-trodden on the ground, the drop down the bank onto the trail can be tricky in a wet Winter but despite the overnight downpour it was okay today. And it was lovely to drop down into cover out of the bitterly cold wind.

Walking to Stretford Ees 

Stretford Ees 

Goldfinches, robins, great tits and wrens sang, pairs of blue tits snuffled about in the catkins of willow trees and a drake mallard dozed by the brook. When I reached Stretford Ees I took the path by the tramline to the river. Chiffchaffs joined the songscape and long-tailed tits skittered about in the hawthorns. Ring-necked parakeets were notably absent. Perhaps the wind was putting them off, though I generally hear them muttering all the more when they're confined to barracks in bad weather.

The river was fast but not excessively high and mallards dabbled about the banks. An over-optimistic part of me looked for dippers as well as grey wagtails on the rocks and got rewarded with neither.

Sale Water Park 

The jet-skiers were in full play on the lake at Sale Water Park. I can moan about it but fair do's, the lake was designed for water sports. They only use half the lake, this half in the corner between the tram lines and the motorway, so there was an outside chance that the scoter might be over the other side, or perhaps on the pools on Broad Ees Dole. A handful of mallards and Canada geese hugged the far bank, all the cormorants were flyovers and that was it for this half of the game.

Broad Ees Dole 

Mute swans are nesting on Broad Ees Dole. Moorhens and gadwalls pottered about on the Teal Pool. At first glance the pool by the hide was quiet, just a handful of Canada geese and a pair of gadwalls. A dozen teal were feeding in the far corner and a pair of dabchicks slowly drifted out of the reeds. A redhead goosander which had been asleep on the island woke up and waddled into view. Blue tits, long-tailed tits and a reed bunting fossicked about in the brambles by the hide. I shared the hide with a chap who was taking his young Abyssinian cat for a walk, she was more interested in the jet skis on the lake than the birds.

Wrens, robins and a song thrush sang in the trees and goldfinches twittered in the treetops. Blue tits and long-tailed tits bounced through the willows and birches along the drains and a treecreeper skittered up the tree trunks.

Mute swan

The "quiet" end of the lake was dominated by mute swans and Canada geese. There weren't many mallards or coots about, a sign they're occupied in hidden corners nest-building. I've only seen the one great crested grebe on here lately so I'm not convinced that there might be another one sat on a nest somewhere. A mixed flock of gulls — half a dozen lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls — dropped in for a bath. Black-headed gulls and cormorants flew by but didn't stop.

Sale Water Park 

Cow Lane 

Every so often a heavy cloud passed over the sun and early April was replaced by mid-February in an instant. Walking through the woodland along Cow Lane chaffinches, blackbirds and a bullfinch joined the songscape and parakeets screeched through the treetops. I had a sit down by the café and watched the great tits, blue tits and coal tits on the feeders. A nuthatch sidled up a tree trunk and flew over onto the fat ball feeder. I hung around a bit to see if a willow tit might turn up. In the end I decided that the wind was too strong and too cold to linger any longer and I moved on.

I had a half-hearted potter about between Barrow Brook and Jackson's Boat before calling it quits and heading home. I'd had a better walk, and better birdwatching, than I'd been expecting given the weather even if I had been disappointed in finding the scoter.