Stretford and Mersey Valley

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

Had a wander across Stretford Meadows in bitter cold wind this lunchtime. Seems strange to spend an hour there and not hear or see any warblers, the first time since early March. Birds of prey, on the other hand were very much in evidence: a buzzard drifted over from the motorway and soared off towards Trafford Park, a pair of kestrels were hunting over the meadows and a sparrowhawk was being mobbed by a magpie over the cricket ground and retreated down Urmston Lane.

Stretford Meadows

A couple of meadow pipits and a linnet dropped in and I disturbed a large charm of goldfinches on a patch of great willowherb at the top of the mound. Other than that, if it wasn't woodpigeon or magpie it didn't seem to be there.

Kickety Brook

I walked down by Kickety Brook and through Stretford Ees, both very quiet, and on to Sale Water Park. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls fussed around on the water park and a couple of lesser black-backs loafed on the water. The usual mallard, mute swans and Canada geese milled about the walkway by the Boathouse.

Broad Ees Dole

A couple of migrant hawkers buzzed past over the reeds as I walked into Broad Ees Dole, a sign that the wind had dropped and we could still pretend it was Summer-ish. A dozen mallard and a couple of dabchicks were on the teal lake. The pool in from of the hide hosted half a dozen each of dabchick, gadwall and teal and a heron dozed on the island despite the squabbling of moorhens.

I got a cup of tea and spent a while overlooking the feeding station by the café. It was surprisingly quiet, just a few great tits and blue tits, together with a nuthatch and a coal tit. By this time the clouds had rolled in ominously and I had places to be so I called it quits for the day.

Pennington Flash

Young song thrushes bathing

The Met Office told me the weather would be better than it was in Stretford so after a late morning wander round my local patch I got the buses to Pennington Flash. Just as I got off the bus at the entrance to the country park it started raining.

I've never seen Pennington Flash so quiet of people, not even on a lousy Winter's afternoon. Mind you, it felt like a lousy Winter's afternoon, the more so as it was only a couple of days ago I was feeling overdressed wearing a gilet. The lack of human traffic may have been the reason why the brook was heaving with mallard all quietly practising their nodding head courtship displays.

Tufted duck diving

All the usual suspects were out on the water. The tufted ducks were in a bit closer than usual, possibly because there wasn't the usual fuss and frenzy on the car park as nobody was there to throw food around. There's been a marked increase in the number of gulls with about a hundred black-headed gulls floating about and a couple of large rafts, each about forty strong, of lesser black-backs. There was a handful of herring gulls but I couldn't see any common gulls, which is strange this time of year.

There were fewer lapwings at the Horrocks Hide and most of they at the far end of the spit with a few cormorants.

Walking down the path towards the Tom Edmondson Hide I encountered the inevitable mixed tit flock working its way through the willows and by the path close to Pengy's pool there was a singing chiffchaff and the very brief appearance of a water rail.

A dozen gadwall were on the Tom Edmondson pool with a couple of moorhens. The pool on the other side of the path held a few shovelers, including a couple of young drakes starting to moult into adult colours and looking like patchwork dolls.

From the screen by Ramsdales Hide I could see a couple of dozen teal dotted about amongst the gadwalls and shovelers and a group of seven juvenile (I think) snipe on one of the little islands. The usual Cetti's warbler sang from the rough scrub at the corner of the main path.

Snipe

The wind had picked up and the rain was getting heavier so I put aside the plan to wander down the canal end to see if any redpolls were about in the trees. All the small birds along the path had gone into deep cover so the chances of seeing any redpolls that may have been there were extremely slim. I decided instead to walk back and see if anything was around the Bunting Hide. I pretty soon decided against this as the rain was bouncing off the path and this seemed to be a hint that it was time to call it quits.

The rain had eased down to a heavy drizzle by the time I got to the cattle pasture. I noticed some movements on the path ahead of me: a pair of robins and a couple of young song thrushes bathing in puddles. A goldcrest flew down and bathed in what could only be described as a damp patch on the path. The robins moved on, to be replaced by a chaffinch. The song thrushes lingered awhile then noticed me and ran into the hedge. Whereupon a treecreeper flew down for a very quick splash before being chased away by another chaffinch which was joined by a blackbird and one of the song thrushes. The treecreeper came back, flew down to the biggest puddle, decided it was too busy and flew off again. All told it was quarter of an hour before there was a lull in the proceedings and I could walk past without disturbing any bird's ablutions.

Song thrush bathing

Goldcrest bathing

Blackbird bathing

A wet, cold but rather productive couple of hours' birdwatching. Needless to say the sun came out and stayed out once I was on the bus home.

Local patch

Barton Clough

Had a wander round my local patch before moving on to Pennington Flash. Fairly quiet again.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 5
• Carrion Crow 4
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 6 overhead
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 2
• Greenfinch 1
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 4
• Magpie 11
• Meadow Pipit 1 overhead
• Robin 7
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 15
• Wren 3

Home thoughts

Now that the woodpigeons have finally got round to eating half the rowan berries the blackbirds have moved in to fight over the remainders. They're so busy squabbling with each other most of the time they don't notice the woodpigeons haven't finished yet.

Thinking about this year's birdwatching I've concluded I'll be lucky to get over 175 species on the year list, small beer in the wider bear garden of concerns. It's not been all bad: a few of the birds I missed on Spring migration I've managed to pick up on their way back and I've managed to visit quite a few new places despite everything, including a couple within walking distance. I'll have to draw a new tread on my walking boots with a biro.

I'm old enough to remember when these were new boots.

One good tern…

Redshanks and turnstones

It was looking like being the last rain-free day of the week and there was a lunchtime high tide so I decided to go over to the Wirral to see what the sea would bring in. (To be honest, I was hoping for my first Sandwich tern of the year.)

I set off from Meols for Leasowe Lighthouse with the light and a strong wind behind me and an hour before high tide. There was plenty of exposed sand still on the beach, littered with loafing gulls, mostly black-headed and lesser black-backs with a lot of herring gulls scattered about far out near the water line. Curlews were dotted here and there across the beach and a hundred or more oystercatchers were busy working the soft mud around the creeks except the one where a small group of people were picking cockles. I could hear redshanks but it was only when I got to the end of the Parade that I could see them, a couple on the sand and then a couple of dozen of them on the creek nearest the sea wall. There was a flurry of movement and more redshanks emerged over the bank accompanied by a score of biggish sandpipers. At first I thought they were knots but then I started to have my doubts and it was only when I confirmed four toes in their footprints and one of the birds opened its wings to show a dark rump that I was convinced I was right in the first place. I'd be no bloody good identifying rare peeps.

Knots

Knot

Redshanks and knots (spot the dunlin!)

Redshanks, knots, lesser black-back and great black-back
If I were a knot I wouldn't be comfortable that close to the great black-back.

Redshank

I walked down the path towards the groyne as the tide drifted in. The herring gulls and oystercatchers flew in to the high parts of the beach by the Parade. By the time I got to the groyne the tide was lapping at the stones at its base and the redshanks and knots had flown in to take refuge. There was a grey plover at the very end of the groyne and a couple of ringed plovers perched like kings of the castle on top. A sudden flash of bright sandy brown caught my eye: a wheatear flew in, took a few minutes' breather then flew off low over the water, battling with the wind. I moved on a little and from the leeward side of the groyne I could see a dozen turnstones and a few dunlin. A yacht taking advantage of the rising tide sailed close to the groyne and brought all the redhanks up, gathering up a few turnstones and knots along the way. They circled the groyne a few times until they were sure the yacht was safely on its way.

Lesser black-back, redshank and knot

A plucky wheatear about to launch itself into the wind

Redshank, turnstone and kno

Redshank, turnstone and knot

I could hear a tern somewhere over the water. It took me a few minutes to find it and even then I only just caught it before it shot off into the wind. Just the one tern, and luckily for me it was a Sandwich tern.

I headed inland towards Leasowe Lighthouse. There were linnets about in the short grass, goldfinches twittered in the bushes and swallows hawked low over the ground.

Leasowe Lighthouse

Beside the path, at the wooded bit by the pool, a mixed tit flock worked its way through the willows, flew across the path into the stunted white poplars and back again. More than a dozen long-tailed tits, half a dozen great tits and at least as many blue tits, with a chiffchaff tagging along. I followed them to the pool, disturbing four moorhens on the water and a great spotted woodpecker that had been pecking about a dead branch. As I walked past the lighthouse I noticed a male kestrel was using the railing about the light as a look-out post.

Past Kerr's Field, which only hosted a brace of magpies and half a dozen black-headed gulls and on for the train at Moreton. While I was waiting for the train I noticed a report of a little stint at Marshside. I considered going for it, in fact if the Southport train had been the first or second train to come in at Moorfields Station I would have done even though there wouldn't have been much daylight left by the time I got there. As it was, I took the second train and maxed my day saver tickets by getting home by a circuitous route via Kirkby and Wigan.

Northwich woods and flashes

Dabchick. Neumann's Flash

I went for a wander around the Northwich flashes. The juvenile black-necked grebe that had been on Neumann's Flash over the weekend had last been reported early on Sunday so it was unlikely to still be around but it's a short hop on the train and it was a nice day for a walk.

As I walked across the bridge over Wade Brook, just by the car park, I could see a couple of small groups of mallard on the water and robins sang in the bushes by the paths. I took the path round Ashton's Flash which was fairly quiet: just a dozen black-headed gulls and half a dozen coot. A couple of buzzards called loudly as they rode the thermals over Marbury Country Park.

Things changed when I got to the bund separating Ashton's Flash from Neumann's Flash. Chiffchaffs called from the birch trees, a couple of jays screeched past and a couple of water rails were having a blood-curdling squealing match in the reeds.

The hide on Neumann's Flash was occupied so I stood outside and scanned round. There were plenty of waterbirds: a large flock of Canada geese, a dozen mute swans, a few dozen coot and mallard and smaller numbers of gadwall, shoveler, wigeon, teal and tufted duck. A few moorhens bobbed in and out the reeds on the other side of the water. More Canada geese and a few greylags loafed on the mud bank on the Eastern side of the flash, together with a dozen teal and fifty-odd lapwings. A dabchick was busy preening just by the hide, taking not one whit of notice of a group of Canada geese that passed by within inches.

Dabchick. Neumann's Flash

Dabchick. Neumann's Flash

Walking back from the hide to the bund I noticed a lot of red dragonflies flitting around the tops of the reeds. At first I thought they were common darters but a couple of them landed close by and I noticed they had a flattened tailfin affair, identifying them as ruddy darters. I'm guessing all the females with them were ruddy darters, too, I honestly can't tell them apart from female common darters.

Ruddy darter, Neumann's Flash

A little further down the bund I encountered a mixed tit flock: mostly blue and great tits with a family party of long-tailed tits and four chiffchaffs. One of the chiffchaffs decided to pick a fight with one of the long-tailed tits and got a shock when the victim turned and chased it off. I've not seen that happen before.

Just after that a flock of twenty-odd curlews flew in and landed by the lapwings.

I carried on along the path round Neumann's Flash. The hedgerows were full of goldfinches, blue tits and singing robins and a chiffchaff deep in one of the trees practiced a bit of song. The hide on the Eastern side was pretty quiet and not much of the water was visible behind the reeds.

I got to the fork in the path by Daisy House Fields. A Cetti's warbler was singing in the rough vegetation in the ditch by the path and I spent a few fruitless minutes trying to catch sight of the songster. The vegetation thins out again at this side of the flash so bits of the water are visible. I had a scan of these: more Canada geese, swans and coots congregated round the little island and a few black-headed gulls loafed on the water. There was something else at a distance bobbing round in an inlet at the corner of the flash almost entirely obscured by reeds. After a bit of fidgeting round I found a gap where I could get a better view of it. At first I decided it was just another juvenile coot, a dark cap, pale face and front of neck, then it turned in the water and it dawned on me that juvenile coots aren't that much smaller than black-headed gulls and don't have abruptly truncated rear ends. It dived for a few minutes and when it bobbed up I got a better look at the shape of its head and bill, a nice juvenile black-necked grebe, similar to but not as neat as an adult in Winter plumage.

I carried on down the path trying to find anywhere with a better, closer view but with no luck. I spent a while in the hide on the West side of the flash hoping the grebe might drift out of the inlet and into sight but it wasn't for doing it.

Neumann's Flash, looking out from the West hide

I had an hour and a half before the next train so I took the path that meanders through Daisy House Fields and into the woodlands over Forge Brook and out again. A goldcrest in a mixed tit flock by the brook was the only addition to the day's tally.

So I got the nice walk and added black-necked grebe to the year list as a bonus.

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

I bobbed over for a walk around Etherow Country Park and Keg Wood, the idea being that although the country park would be busy the wood wouldn't be and by the time I'd had a wander round and was on my way back the bulk of the crowd would be going home for tea. And if the worst came to the worst I'd have added mandarin duck to the month list (as it happens, for nearly an hour I thought that wasn't going to happen).

The lake by the car park hosted the usual suspects for this time of year: black-headed gulls, Canada geese, coot and mallard. The usual pair of Muscovy ducks were fossicking round in the creek beyond the garden centre; I've no idea where the full-grown youngster has gone.

Etherow Country Park

Up near the weir there was just the one grey wagtail, a female, feeding on the river. Up to this point I hadn't seen a single mandarin duck, it came as a relief as a couple of dozen of them flew up off the river and over into Keg Wood.

Keg Wood was noisy with robins singing and wrens taking exception to my passing by. I was most of the way to Sunny Corner when I encountered the first mixed tit flock. A couple of nuthatches took the vanguard, closely followed by a few great tits, blue tits and long-tailed tits following them, a treecreeper and a couple of goldcrests trailing behind. I sat in the "bus shelter" at Sunny Corner for five minutes to see what might turn up, just a squirrel and a couple of magpies this time.

By Sunny Corner, Keg Wood

I bumped into a second, smaller tit flock on the way back: a few great tits and blue tits, a nuthatch and a chiffchaff.

I had toyed with the idea of taking the track up the hill through Keg Wood and wander down to Hattersley for the train but it was getting a bit late to be tacking a three-and-a-half mile detour to the walk. I think I'll come back in a couple of weeks to specifically do that walk.

Back in the country park there were more mandarins on the river and a couple of pairs on the pool by the weir. A couple of cormorants loafed in the dead tree on one of the islands in the model boating lake.

Cormorant, Etherow Country Park

 A nice afternoon's walk, enjoy them while I can.