Mersey Valley

Black swan, Sale Water Park

After the giddying about of the past couple of days I thought I'd ground myself with a leisurely bit of local birdwatching. I decided to have a potter about Wellacre Country Park and got the 256 with every intention of doing so but the bus broke down at the next bus stop. The next bus in either direction was the 25 to Stockport so I got that, got off at the edge of Chorlton and walked down to Hawthorn Lane.

Hawthorn Lane 

It was a bright, sunny day and quite mild so long as you were in sheltered sunlight. The moment you stepped into the wind or shadow it was cold, I was dressed wrong for the weather at least every five minutes, I should have brought my raincoat for the extra layer. Magpies and ring-necked parakeets rattled and screeched in the trees. Robins sang in the undergrowth and though I was aware of a mixed tit flock somewhere close to hand I couldn't see any of them.

I had a bit more luck in Ivy Green, the great tits conspicuously objected to my walking past. Carrion crows, woodpigeons and jackdaws flew about the clearing.

Ivy Green 

Chorlton Ees 

Chorlton Ees was quiet save the magpies, parakeets and carrion crows. Dunnocks and wrens shuffled about in the brambles and a family of mistle thrushes were uncharacteristically quiet as they flew overhead. I walked through to the bend in the river where a young heron loafed by the bank with a couple of pairs of mallards.

More pairs of mallards drifted downstream as I walked up to Jackson's Boat. A flock of goldfinches flew into one of the big ash trees, woodpigeons clattered about in hawthorns and jays ferries acorns across the river. The parakeets were particularly noisy at Jackson's Boat, even the crows couldn't make themselves heard.

Barrow Brook 

It was very much quieter as I walked along Barrow Brook. Were it not for the occasional tick from a robin or the nuthatch calling from a willow tree I would have been ready to swear that me and the squirrels had the place to myself. Right at the end, just before the brook goes into the lake at Sale Water Park, an adult heron lurked in the reeds.

Black swan

A black swan had joined the herd of mute swans on the lake. There are at least two pairs of black swans kicking about the Northwest and I know one pair bred at Marshside the other year. It isn't often I see one on its own. Most of the mute swans just accepted it as one of the gang but one cob wasn't at all sure and drifted over that way in full fighting trim a few times just to let it know who was boss. In the process it demonstrated that the black swan is both a smaller and slimmer bird, the neck being particularly wiry.

Mute swan

Even taking into account this cob mute swan's aggressively fluffed up, he's a much bigger and less slender bird than the black swan

There was a canoeing class going on so the mallards and coots were crowded out and only a couple of Canada geese loafed on the slipway. The cormorants stayed in the water well out of the way, as did a great crested grebe and its full-grown youngster. There was a small crowd of black-headed gulls but for once not a single large gull. A mixed tit flock in the bushes by the electricity pylon included at least one chiffchaff.

Goosanders and mallards on Broad Ees Dole 

The hide pool on Broad Ees Dole was busy with ducks, mostly teal and mallard. They were accompanied by five redhead goosanders, four drake shovelers and two pairs of gadwalls. Moorhens pottered about the islands and it took me ages to spot the two juvenile dabchicks hiding in plain sight amongst the teals.

Teal Pool 

Appropriately enough, there were half a dozen teals on the Teal Pool.

River Mersey 
Stretford Ees, on the Lancashire side, on the left and Sale Water Park on the Cheshire side on the right.

I walked back to Stretford via a very quiet Stretford Ees. Dunnocks, wrens and great tits silently fidgeted through the brambles, robins sang, parakeets screeched and a family of carrion crows called to each other as they passed overhead.