Salford Quays

Pied wagtail 

The plan had been to get the morning's errands done and dusted then shoot over to Southport to try and catch the Temminck's stints at Marshside. Temminck's stints are another of those blink and you miss them Spring passage specialities. As it was, I got so wet and chilled to the marrow running the errands I decided what I really needed was a pot of tea and my lunch. 

It hadn't been an altogether duff morning. The fledgling starlings are being coaxed from their nests in the eaves of rooftops, their parents standing on nearby telegraph poles singing and beating their wings to encourage them. They may come to regret it: there were already plenty of adult starlings zipping round each with two noisy begging fledglings almost hanging from their tail tips. I think some of the baby spadgers will be out in the next few days, I've stocked up in fat balls for the feeders in the fruit bushes (the adults get a free meal in return for stuffing the youngsters full of aphids). Both blue tits are coming in together, a sure sign that the nest they've got a few doors down have hungry mouths to feed. Both the baby dunnocks and baby robins have learned not to make themselves conspicuous.

The rain abated though it was still blowing a hooley and cold with it so I went over to the Trafford Centre and played bus station bingo. The 126 was in but I didn't want to revisit the Leigh area so soon so I got the next bus, the 250, and walked up from Sir Matt Busby Way to Wharfside to see what was on the Ship Canal and the quays.

Herring gull 

The raft of about a dozen large gulls was a far cry from the Winter roosts. There were equal numbers of lesser black-backs and herring gulls, none of the herring gulls were adults. 

Canada goose

I walked along the wharfside past the tram stop towards Pomona, accompanied part of the way by a very smart male pied wagtail. There wasn't much on the water along this stretch except a couple of cormorants. Half a dozen cormorants were loafing across a litter barrier drying their wings. Over on the muddy beach on Cotton Quays a pair of Canada geese pottered about with their goslings in the company of a flock of pigeons, a moorhen and half a dozen second-calendar-year black-headed gulls, most of which hasn't fully moulted into their brown hoods. A little further on another Canada goose was still sitting on her nest.

Three cormorants were fishing as a team under the Trafford Road Bridge. There must be a huge fish population in this stretch of the canal to support the year-round population of cormorants. A mute swan dozed on the opposite bank and a song thrush sang from the bankside bushes, which was unexpected.

Herring gulls 

I walked up to Pomona, which was dead quiet, and walked my way back. Which was easier said than done with the wind in my face. Half a dozen lesser black-backs had settled on Cotton Quays and the geese were keeping their goslings well away from them. One of the gulls bobbing on the water just away from the group intrigued me. It was a third-calendar-year bird with a distinctly paler grey saddle than the other birds. From the views I was getting I wasn't sure if it was an unusually pale lesser black-back, a yellow-legged gull or a trick of the light so I kept it in view as I walked along until it swam behind one of the concrete islands. I quickened my pace to try and catch it on the other side and swore as most of the lesser black-backs flew off to join the raft in the bay, taking the bird with them. Ordinarily this would be good news as an open wing view would clinch the identification but they were off an away before I got past the island and I just got a confusion of tail-end views.

Lesser black-backs and herring gulls 

My hopes that I might pick the gull up again as I walked towards the Millennium Bridge were confounded as the tour boat sailed through the raft and the gulls dispersed, leaving a few young herring gulls and the three fishing cormorants in its wake.

Grey wagtail 

I crossed the Millennium Bridge and was pleased to find a pair of grey wagtails busily feeding on the dockside without much care about the passersby. They've become a settled part of the canalside life of Salford and Manchester city centre.

Salford Quays