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House sparrow, a first-Winter cock

The foxes had another busy night a-courting so there was no great surprise to find nearly all the local jackdaws sitting in the sycamore trees on the railway embankment to see if there was any pickings as the dog fox trotted down the line back to its lair.

I've had to refill the sunflower seed feeders again today, the sparrows, titmice and goldfinches have been giving them a lot of hammer. It took a while but I managed to establish that two goldcrests were visiting the garden, a male and a female. The male is the one I generally see coming into the garden, I've spotted the female on the sycamores a few times in the past, today she was feeding on the cherry tree.

• Black-headed Gull 8 overhead
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 3
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 7
• Great Tit 2
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 18
• Jackdaw 15
• Long-tailed Tit 6
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 8
• Woodpigeon 1

Over on the school field the large gulls were a first-Winter lesser black-back and ten herring gulls: one adult, five first-Winters, two second-Winters and two third-Winter birds.

Trafford Centre

Goldcrest

After a night of listening to lustful foxes (I was awake anyway) I opened the bedroom curtains to find a goldcrest feeding on the pine cone near the living room window. Which is a nice way to start the day. Other than that it was pretty much business as usual in the garden again. Another refill of the sunflower seed feeders brought the long-tailed tits in from their foraging in the sycamore trees.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Coal Tit 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 2
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 20
• Jackdaw 1
• Long-tailed Tit 7
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 14
• Woodpigeon 2

Goldcrest, showing the gold this time

Spadger.
This is the second-in-command on the silver team.

It was a dry day (insofar as it wasn't raining and I kept off the grass) so I decided to go for a walk towards the Trafford Centre. Stretford Ees is slightly further away but I generally head that way, via Stretford Meadows, because it doesn't seem such a long walk. I think the walk to the Trafford Centre feels longer because it's mostly long straight lines.

I walked under the motorway subway and down to Kingsway Park. This is a long stretch of grass with a few trees peppered in it; you can tell the course of the old Longford Brook by the public parks running the length where the ground's too boggy to build on. This was more than adequately illustrated today by the forty-odd black-headed gulls skating on the frozen pond that is the football pitch.

I passed the retail park and back under the motorway at the Trafford Centre junction then took the road that loops around Beyond and Chill Factor^e before rejoining Trafford Way. Three bullfinches — two females and a male — were feeding in the brambles by the car park and a male peregrine was perched on the roof of Beyond. By the way it was mantling it obviously had caught something, by the size it was more likely a thrush or blackbird rather than a pigeon.

• Black-headed Gull 30 1 overhead
• Blue Tit 1
• Bullfinch 3
• Carrion Crow 5
• Dunnock 1
• Great Tit 1
• Jackdaw 5
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 10
• Peregrine 1
• Pied Wagtail 6
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 2

I went home from the Trafford Centre via Lostock Park. The afternoon was getting on so most of the birds were settling down for the night.

• Black-headed Gull 9 overhead
• Blackbird 8
• Blue Tit 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Common Gull 1 overhead
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 3
• Greenfinch 1
• House Sparrow 4
• Magpie 8
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 1
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 6
• Wren 1

Stretford

The view from the living room window

Another cold, damp day in paradise. Today the garden had a visitation from thirty starlings and three goldfinches came in to the seed feeders, the largest number for this Winter, which would have unthinkably low even ten years ago. The pair of coal tits were back in together again, I felt a bit smug at being able to identify the male before the female popped out of the bushes. A male goldcrest came in just after lunchtime and spent a while being dwarfed by the giant pine cone it was feeding from. This gave me the opportunity for this year's first assays for the album of photos of where a warbler was a moment ago.

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Coal Tit 2
• Collared Dove 3
• Goldcrest 1
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 20
• Jackdaw 1
• Magpie 2
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Starling 30

The magpies are nest-building in the same tree they used last year. The large gulls on the school field were all herring gulls. No adults this time, and just the one first-Winter bird with a big fourth-Winter and three third-Winter birds. 

As I waited for the train at Humphrey Park (I was nipping to the shops) I listened to a couple of robins having a singing duel. One to be careful of: the robin on the Manchester platform has added a couple of willow warbler cadences to its song.

Home

The female bullfinch found the nyger seedheads

A pair of bullfinches visited the garden today in the rain. I must say, given the huge amount of sunflower hearts kicking around out there it was a bit off of them to spend ten minutes eating buds off the blackcurrant bushes. Luckily we can spare a few buds: the bushes are both as tough as old boots and very productive (I'm still working my way through the last three pounds of currants in the freezer).

Male bullfinch abusing the hospitality of the garden

Both of the coal tits came in at the same time this morning which gave me a rare opportunity to see the differences between them. The male's underparts are flushed with a rich peach orange whereas the female's are a warm straw brown. When they're sat side-by-side on a branch the difference is obvious but when they're feeding on their own it's a very subtle difference and an easy one to miss if the light's not on your side.

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 3
• Bullfinch 2 pair
• Carrion Crow 1
• Coal Tit 2 pair
• Collared Dove 1
• Feral Pigeon 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 2 pair
• House Sparrow 14
• Jackdaw 1
• Magpie 1
• Robin 2
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1

Barton Clough

An hour's wander round the local patch in the pouring rain was predictably quiet.

• Black-headed Gull 1
• Blackbird 7
• Blue Tit 2
• Bullfinch 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Common Gull 3
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 8
• Fieldfare 3
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Tit 1
• Herring Gull 1 overhead
• House Sparrow 8
• Magpie 14
• Mistle Thrush 2
• Robin 1
• Starling 11
• Woodpigeon 13

Mersey Valley

Goosander, Sale Water Park

The weather forecast promised it was going to be a bleak morning turning nasty and wet by lunchtime so I judged it should be safe to go for a walk round Sale Water Park and nudge the year list along a bit.

Stretford Meadows

Even though it was lunchtime Stretford Meadows was fairly quiet, just a few people walking along the bridleway path and I had the open meadow to myself and the birds. As usual the magpies and carrion crows were most obviously kicking about with the blackbirds and woodpigeons quietly going about their business. 

I'd hoped to see the first kestrel of the year but was having no luck until I heard a kerfuffle over in the hawthorns beyond the rise. The pair of kestrels had taken objection to a buzzard which had landed for a bit of worm-hunting. Once they'd put it to flight a pair of crows escorted it over the motorway and off towards Ashton-on-Mersey.

Stretford Meadows' pair of kestrels after they saw off the buzzard
(Male in the left)

A family party of long-tailed tits fussing about the base of one of the electricity pylons was a hint of a mixed tit flock that never materialised until I'd passed under Chester Road where the hawthorn hedge was thick with great tits and blue tits. One of the taller hawthorns sounded like it was full of goldfinches, in fact it was full of chaffinches and blue tits and just three particularly vocal goldfinches.

Stonechat in the gloom of Stretford Ees

The rain eased as I arrived at Stretford Ees but it was still very gloomy. It took a while to spot the pair of stonechats. They shadowed me along the path awhile, all the time keeping their distance just in case I was a dog in disguise.

Sale Water Park was busier, unsurprisingly, but not silly so. There was a small raft of black-headed and common gulls on the water and a party of five dabchicks were feeding by the reeds. Broad Ees Dole was frozen over so the teal were confined to feeding among the drowned tree roots by the path. A small group of herring gulls and lesser black-backs loitered by the slipway with the Canada geese. There were a lot more gadwall than mallard, surprisingly enough, and half a dozen goosanders fed at the Cow Lane end of the lake.

I spent five minutes watching the feeders by the café and added willow tit to the year list. I walked on through Sale Ees as the light started to fail. The parakeets were going to roost as I passed Jackson's Boat and the first eighty-odd jackdaws were settling in on Hardy Farm. On my way home I spotted an empty bus going my way and took it, it would have been daft not to.

Kickety Brook passing under the tram bridge and the Bridgewater Canal aquaduct.

Home again

Male bullfinch

A milder, wetter day led to the birds being a bit more chilled at the feeders. The spadgers didn't drop anchor in the garden so it was harder to be sure how many visited in total (there's only a few of the males who are easily individually identifiable). A male bullfinch hung around for an hour eating the buds off the rambling rose stems and saving me a bit of pruning next month. The long-tailed tits popped in again, accompanied by a goldcrest that confined itself to gleaning from the ivy in the sycamores.

• Black-headed Gull 2
• Blackbird 2
• Blue Tit 2
• Bullfinch 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Goldcrest 1
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 12
• Long-tailed Tit 5
• Robin 1
• Rook 1
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 6
• Woodpigeon 1

Male bullfich

Over on the school playing field the usual black-headed gulls were joined by a few lesser black-backs and a small crowd of herring gulls including five first-Winters, one showing its first few grey feathers on its scapulars.

Home

Collared doves

It's been a bright sunny Winter's day, as promised in yesterday's weather forecasts. I'd wondered about going for a proper walk to give the joints a bit of a workout but in the end I really couldn't be bothered.

In case you were wondering how big the fatty pine cones are, here's a starling for scale

Guess who bit whom
House sparrow and great tit

One of the lads

• Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
• Blackbird 1
• Blue Tit 2
• Carrion Crow 1
• Collared Dove 2
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 16
• Jackdaw 2
• Magpie 1
• Robin 1
• Starling 11
• Woodpigeon 2

The ground on the school playing field is evidently a bit softer than it was yesterday, all the usual black-headed gulls are back. Today's collection of large gulls included an adult lesser black-back and five herring gulls — an adult, two second-Winter birds and two first-Winters. One of the second-Winter birds got my hopes up when it walked out from behind two of the other birds as the first thing I saw of it was a pale tip to the bill; once it was out in the open it was obviously a herring gull that was a little advanced in the moulting of its bill sheaths.