Mersey Valley

Dipper, River Mersey

Friday was a sleeping day after an exhausting Thursday which wasn't much about seawatching. Yesterday followed the trend of very wet early morning drifting into windy sunshine. I decided I needed a writing day, if only to remind myself I can write in daylight. There wasn't a lot doing in the garden that was visible, the feeders have been emptied and I've not got fresh supplies in.

The weather today followed the pattern. I had my dinner and set off for a walk through Cob Kiln Wood.

Old Eeas Brook, a bit different to this time last month

Cob Kiln Wood 

Cob Kiln Wood was full of wasps and singing robins. The wasps buzzed about aimlessly after disappointing lives and they had my sympathy. A red admiral somehow filled all the space in one of the clearings. I eventually managed to duck it and move on. Chiffchaffs fly-catched from hawthorn bushes, mixed tit flocks silently bustled through willows and elderberry bushes and I took photos of twigs where goldcrests had been.

The electricity pylon clearing 

A common darter sat on my shoulder for part of the ride as I walked into the electricity pylon clearing. After the recent rains the comfrey was knee-high.

Cob Kiln Lane 

I walked down Cob Kiln Lane to the river, bumping into a mixed tit flock by the bridge, a large family of long-tailed tits accompanied by chiffchaffs, great tits and blue tits. At first i couldn't see anything on the river, a pair of mallards turned the corner into view as they drifted upstream to the shoals.

River Mersey 

On a whim, and despite its being a sunny Sunday afternoon, I decided to walk upstream along the river. There wasn't a lot about besides people, dogs and bicycles. Long-tailed tits fidgeted in the hedgerows, jackdaws and woodpigeons flew by, wrens, robins and great tits tutted from hawthorns, a buzzard called from the fields and a ring-necked parakeet flew over into Ashton-on-Mersey.

Grey wagtail

As I reached the bend of the river by the coffee shop I could hear but not see a grey wagtail. Eventually I found it, a juvenile almost matching the rocks it was fossicking about on.

Dipper 

I noticed a movement on the bank a couple of yards to the left. I expected to find another grey wagtail and found instead a dipper investigating the sides of the shoals here. A cormorant flew downstream as I watched the dipper.

Dipper 

Dipper 

Dipper 

Dipper 

There was a lot of noise from the Bradley Road rookery, mostly jackdaws and rooks gathering in the pre-roost but a couple of rooks were carrying sticks in. The walk through Kickety Brook local nature reserve was fairly quiet, the mixed tit flock working the pathside waa silent, as were the robins and woodpigeons.

Kickety Brook local nature reserve 

Stretford Meadows 

Over the bridge and onto Stretford Meadows and into the wind. Chiffchaffs squeaked and robins sang from hawthorn bushes. Lesser black-backs, woodpigeons and carrion crows passed overhead, parakeets screeched in the treetops and I bumped into my last mixed tit flock of the day.

I walked home and completed the circuit. It wasn't spectacular birdwatching in any way but there had been a variety of habitats with a corresponding change in the birdlife along the way.