Mersey Valley

Goosander, Northenden

I didn't feel like doing a right lot today, I'd slept badly and the joints were objecting to the colder nights and mornings and my doing the fortnightly big shop in the rain yesterday. It was far too nice an Autumn day to waste, though, so I went over to the Trafford Centre, played bus station bingo and found myself heading back through Stretford on the 23 bus. 

The options were: getting off in Chorlton and having a walk through Ivy Green and Chorlton Ees, getting off at Southern Cemetery and walking down to Chorlton Water Park, getting off in Didsbury for a walk along the river or staying on to Stockport and moving on to someplace else. I didn't want a long bus ride and I just wanted a gentle toddle so I decided I'd get off in Didsbury and walk back down the river to Chorlton Water Park and get the bus home. So I walked down through Chorlton Water Park, on to Jackson's Boat, through Chorlton Ees and Ivy Green and back to Stretford. Which got me a bit of exercise and an evening full of "Told you so" from my knees.

River Mersey, Didsbury 

I got off the bus at Winster Avenue and walked down Darley Avenue to the river. It was bright and sunny, woodpigeons and magpies clattered about, robins sang, great tits chunnered and ring-necked parakeets screeched in treetops.

Goosander
This time of year duck pictures are as much about the water.

Groups of mallards, mostly drakes, loitered under the banks of the river. As the crow flies it's about a quarter of a mile from my starting point to Princess Parkway, the meanders of the river easily triple that. And it turned out that every quarter of a mile along this stretch I would bump into a redhead merganser. The youngsters are kicking out on their own now.

Mallard

River Mersey 

A couple of cormorants flew upstream. Carrion crows and magpies fossicked about on the golf course across the river and more parakeets tried to put the players off with their screeching.

Goosander about to dive

Just by Princess Parkway I saw a small duck by the bank with a goosander. I expected it to be a young mandarin, there are a couple of pairs on this stretch of the river, I was a bit surprised to find a teal here. 

Teal

I passed under the parkway and followed the river meanders to Chorlton Water Park. Chiffchaffs and great tits squeaked in the hedgerows either side of the river. Carrion crows, magpies and parakeets called from Kenworthy Woods. A couple more cormorants flew upstream and one settled to fish for a few minutes before moving on. I checked out the shoals for grey wagtails and eventually found a juvenile rummaging about between two rocks. A lone house martin flying downstream came as a surprise.

River Mersey
Kenworthy Woods on the left.

Inevitably, Chorlton Water Park was busy. Which was great news for the mute swans, coots, pigeons and black-headed gulls. The mallards were a bit preoccupied. Mixed tit flocks bounced throughthe bushes, robins and wrens ticked in the undergrowth. Most of the noise was coming from juvenile great crested grebes while their parents ostentatiously ignored their begging. The rest of the noise was provided by parakeets.

Gadwalls

Gadwalls were paired up, the tufted ducks were still keeping to their rafts. I'm never sure whether tufted ducks actually do start getting the fires of the blood later in the year than the dabbling ducks or they're just more sneaky about it. A jay flew overhead towards the river, its throat pouch distended with acorns. Jays account for a lot of the sudden bursts of woodland in unsupervised areas, they have a tendency to forget where they cached a lot of their acorns.

Tufted ducks 

Barlow Tip 

It's been a while since I last visited Barlow Tip so I thought I should show my face there. And ended up walking from one corner to another then down the length of the fence by the golf course and the ground was still plenty dry enough to get away with it. Mixed tit flocks quietly drifted through the trees, robins and wrens sang, blackbirds silently fossicked about in the leaf litter, woodpigeons and magpies clattered about in the trees, and parakeets will be parakeets. 

Barlow Tip
Yes, that is the path.

I was negotiating a tricky point in the path by the golf course — the ground suddenly rises and falls while the path takes a sharp turn with a tree in the way — when I came across a drift of Autumn crocuses. They aren't native flowers, they originate from Türkiye and the Caucasus, but they're still lovely and they provide a bit of nectar for the bees.

Autumn crocus

The walk down the stretch of the river to Jackson's Boat was surprisingly duckless, a moorhen was the only bird on the water. The wasps and bees were busy along the banks. A charm of goldfinches twittered in the tops of the larch trees by the golf course, making a start on the first of the ripening cones. I expect next time I come this way I'll be looking for siskins and redpolls.

Jackson's Boat 

The walk from Jackson's Boat through Hardy Farm, Chorlton Ees and Ivy Green was a very pleasant meander through dappled woodland. There were more mixed tit flocks, more robins, wrens, woodpigeons and magpies and a constant backing track of parakeets. I finished what had been intended as an hour's gentle toddle about by walking into Stretford for the bus home.