Mersey Valley

Canada geese and farmyard greylag, Chorlton Water Park

There was another bumper bundle of gulls on the school playing field this morning, with half a dozen black-headed gulls with the forty-odd lesser black-backs.

I thought I'd give the antihistamines a workout so I got the 25 bus to Chorlton Park and walked down to Hardy Farm. 

Ringlet, Hardy Farm

We're approaching that bit of Summer where all the photographs will be dragonflies, butterflies and landscapes. Hardy Farm wasn't quiet: there were jackdaws, woodpigeons, whitethroats, wrens and song thrushes aplenty but the challenge was seeing them. At least the flyover greenfinches and goldfinches give you a fighting chance and the swifts were a constant presence. The warm weather had brought the meadow browns and ringlets out to flutter in the grass. The ringlets would be a recurring feature the length of the walk along the Mersey between Jackson's Boat and Chorlton Water Park.

Jackson's Boat 

Talking of Jackson's Boat, the bridge has been repaired so we're back to business as usual along this stretch of the river.

Blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees either side of the tram viaduct. I'm losing my ear for garden warblers, I suspect I'm usually identifying them all as blackcaps now. One singing from bushes in the golf course across the river was sufficiently different for me to stop and listen closely and realise what it was.

There was a grey wagtail and a mallard in the river at Jackson's Boat and they proved to be the only birds on the water as I walked upstream. A cormorant flew low over but didn't land and half a dozen sand martins hawked low over the river below the river bank 

Common blue damselfly (female), Barlow Tip

Blue-tailed damselfly, Barlow Tip

There were more chiffchaffs, blackcaps, song thrushes and whitethroats on Barlow Tip and they proved as difficult to see as the families of great tits, blue tits and robins rummaging about in the bushes. There was an abundance of damselflies, the only ones I could identify were the common blue damsels and the blue-tailed damsels.

Chorlton Water Park was phenomenally busy with nearly every inch of open space covered in sunbathers and quite a few people frolicking in the water. There wasn't much about besides Canada geese and coots, even the parakeets stuck to chunnering in the treetops.

Kenworthy Woods 

Kenworthy Woods was considerably quieter: I saw three people in total. It was noisy with birds, a constant soundscape of blackbirds, song thrushes and woodpigeons with backing vocals from chiffchaffs, blackcaps and wrens and occasional riffs from magpies that were otherwise busy eating cherries. 

I walked through the woods and got the 101 to Hough End and got the 25 back home.

I've been worrying about our local swift population, there's only a couple of days when I've seen so much as a handful of them. I was walking down the road later on, getting on for sunset, and was pleased to see fourteen of them hawking over the rooftops. Fingers crossed for them.

Pennington and beyond

Goldcrest, Lower Broughton

The gulls arrived on the school playing field with the school bell. by half nine there were thirty-five lesser black-backs together with half a dozen herring gulls and a handful of black-headed gulls. I suspect there's a passage going on, most of the morning birds were coming in as others were leaving.

I went over to Pennington Flash for a wander. I'd seen reports that the Egyptian geese were back, if they were around this afternoon I didn't see them. Still, there was plenty enough around to be getting on with.

Juvenile black-headed gull, Pennington Flash

Canada geese and goslings, Pennington Flash

There were young birds everywhere. On the flash by the car park some of the Canada geese had small, fluffy goslings while others had nearly full-grown youngsters starting to take on a brown and beige version of the adults' neck and head pattern. Most of the young mallards, lapwings and black-headed gulls were nearly full grown, the gulls flying strongly now. The great crested grebes are full grown and looking odd, having the same shape as the adults but still in humbug stripes.

Juvenile lapwing, Pennington Flash

The small birds were less obvious, aside from family parties of blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits. The blackcaps were the only warblers doing much singing, the reed warblers, chiffchaffs and willow warblers tending to be busy and even the Cetti's warbler by Ramsdales only gave a very brief snatch of song. It's not often you see a Cetti's warbler before you hear it.

The ducks are all in eclipse now, the mallards and gadwalls loafing in groups and the shovelers going missing, hiding in deep cover.

There were more butterflies about, mostly speckled woods with a few red admirals and large whites in the open spaces. I'm starting to feel less worried about them now.

From Ramsdales Hide

I could only find one of the little ringed plovers on Ramsdales, one of the youngsters, but there's more than plenty of cover for them to hide in now.

There was literally nothing at the Bunting Hide today, which is unusual even when there's no food in the feeders.

Some of the coots and black-headed gulls looked to be still sitting on nests at the Teal Hide, others had very noisy small chicks. A couple of dozen tufted ducks tried to doze amidst the noise.

Black-headed gull chick with mallard, Pennington Flash

I'd seen a few common blue damselflies flitting about already on my walk. The Teal pool was electric with them, it was impossible to look anywhere on the water without there being lots of flashes of bright blue to distract you. The blue of the broad-bodied chasers is more sober but there's so much body involved they were just as distracting. I was deep into identifying dragonflies when a brown shape flew into view. Only my second-ever hummingbird hawk moth and I spent most of my time watching it wondering what sort of dragonfly flies like that.

I wandered back through the car park, checking again for Egyptian geese, and got the bus back into Leigh. I had three options in mind for where to visit next, the V1 bus to Manchester was the first to arrive at the bus station so I got that to Salford Cresent.

I had a walk through Peel Park to a backdrop of singing blackbirds and blackcaps and the calls of black-headed gulls on the river. There were a few mallards and mute swans idling on the water and half a dozen cormorants and a heron were almost hidden in the trees upstream.

River Irwell, Peel Park 

I walked down the river to Lower Broughton, hoping to see goosanders. I didn't see any until I got to the shingle bank on the bend, just the four young redheads. They were mostly busy preening and dozing.

Goosander, Lower Broughton

Goosander, Lower Broughton

Goosander, Lower Broughton

A goldcrest came down from the treetops to see what I was, established I wasn't any trouble and got on with collecting beakfuls of insects for a brood somewhere. Being just an arm's length away and flitting about busily I was pushing my luck trying to get any photos but managed to get two where it was possible to see that there was a bird there and it might be a goldcrest.

The river bank was busy with small tortoiseshells, large whites and large skippers, which kept one of the local cats distracted from any small birds that might have been about.

I got to Broughton Bridge, and the usual family of grey wagtails, then went into Manchester for my bus home after a productive couple of short walks.

Mosses

Lesser black-back, Little Woolden Moss

After a couple of nights of not getting to sleep before dawn I wasn't really ready for taking advantage of a cooler day with a lower pollen count. In the end I dragged myself out for a late afternoon walk on the mosses and felt tired but the better for it in the end.

I got the train to Irlam and walked up Astley Lane. The fields were full of woodpigeons, pheasants were calling in odd corners and whitethroats sang from hawthorn bushes. The heavy cloud brought the swifts feeding low, once in a while a swallow would pass by and join them for a minute or two.

An odd shape in the field opposite the Jack Russell's gate made me stop and look. It took a while to realise it was a young kestrel, not long out of the nest. I soon found its father sitting on one of the telegraph wires. Another youngster belted in stage right and tried to take a carrion crow feeding in the field. The crow, with a resigned patience I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it, simply stepped away at the last minute then carried on feeding. Knowing crows I suspect that kestrel's going to have to watch it's step in future.

This juvenile kestrel stayed resting on the ground, Irlam Moss

This juvenile kestrel thought it would try and catch a carrion crow, Irlam Moss

The field by the motorway looked quiet, which just shows how well the disruptive colouration of lapwings, oystercatchers and mildewy young mistle thrushes works on roughly ploughed land.

About half of the turf has been removed from the fields on the other side of the motorway and more lapwings were taking advantage of the exposed ground while swifts and swallows hawked low overhead. There were family parties of pied wagtails flitting about, the ones on the field opposite the yard were very young: still more primrose green than grey, only their long black and white tails giving an easy ID feature. Older juveniles, with grey backs and lemon yellow faces, chased each other round the field margins.

Little Woolden Moss

I had a quick look at Little Woolden Moss, the plan being to walk through and get the bus at Glazebury but checking the time I realised I'd be getting to the stop just after the bus. Heywood's Second Law of public transport states that however often you end up waiting ten minutes for a bus to arrive the one time you're a minute late it'll be running dead on schedule. So I had half an hour's wander then headed for Twelve Yards Road.

The willow warblers were quieter today, just a handful singing by the entrance. Reed buntings, linnets and meadow pipits twitted about in the grasses and heather. The swifts here were feeding at head height or lower, which was a bit of a test of my nerve. A couple of dozen lapwings bathed and rested on the pool with a third-year lesser black-back while a mallard and her young ducklings dabbled at the margins. There were lots of pied wagtails about but no sign of yellow wagtails. The curlews were very noisy, one eventually taking flight to go and feed on the fields.

By Twelve Yards Road

Walking down Twelve Yards Road I was struck by the number of young birds about. Fluffy whitethroats flew up from ditches to have a look at me as I passed, diving straight back at the sight of the camera. The hedges were full of the squeaks and twiterrings of young robins, wrens, blue tits and great tits.

There'd been a steady flow of odd ones and twos of black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs so I almost missed the common tern that flew past. The usual buzzard was on its usual telephone pole and the fields were full of woodpigeons, stock doves and skylarks.

I was ready for going home but as much out of bloody mindedness as principle I had ten minutes' wander up to the first of the pools just North of Twelve Yards Road. There were a few mallards and coots about and a couple of black-headed gulls were having a bath. The blackcaps, willow warblers and chiffchaffs were in full song. The path was lined with figworts, a plant I don't often pay much attention to but when they're literally in your face the flowers are as striking at they are small.

Figwort, Chat Moss

There were more young birds along Cutnook Lane, families of blackcaps, long-tailed tits and great spotted woodpeckers with more robins and great tits. A female kestrel flew low over with such a direct power flight I had to look twice to make sure what she was.

Gulls are enough to baffle me, I'm glad I'm not one of the botanists that study the thousands of microspecies of brambles. These star-petalled brambles were on Cutnook Lane.

I got over the motorway into Irlam to a textbook demonstration of Heywood's Second Law of public transport and walked down to Liverpool Road to make as best could of the bus connections home.

Home thoughts

I don't understand the gull movements on the school playing field at the moment. Over forty lesser black-backs arrived just as I was getting ready to go out to the shops late morning. Most were adults, there were three third-year birds and a first-year bird. There were also half a dozen herring gulls — four adults and two second-year birds — and a couple of adult black-headed gulls. As far as I could see they weren't actively feeding, they were just loafing. I got back in time to see the last of the lesser black-backs departing and floating off westwards.

I don't know if there's a group of " local" birds returning every day with whichever individuals that happen to be at the same feeding hole at the time tagging along for the ride or if this is a passage of gulls coming down from breeding grounds up in the hills.

Stretford and beyond

Dunnock, Stretford Meadows

The garden is still full of young small birds and they're going through the sunflower seeds like a plague of locusts. I suspect there's a family of wrens out there but I haven't bumped into them yet.

Over on the school playing field the gulls are back this week. They're nearly all adult lesser black-backs, at least a dozen at a time, with a couple of herring gulls and black-headed gulls tagging along. Today there were a couple of third calendar year lesser black-backs, the first subadults I've seen here for a few weeks. The crowd arrives late in the morning and disappear at lunchtime so it's easy to miss it.

I waited until teatime to go for today's stroll so as to miss the worst of the heat and the pollen. The combination of timing and liberally smeared vaseline around my nostrils meant I didn't start sneezing until I was nearly back home.

Stretford Meadows

Stretford Meadows was deceptively quiet when I arrived and I thought it was going to be another one magpie and a whitethroat effort but I turned out to be dead wrong. There was a garden warbler singing from the stables by the garden centre, a couple of blackcaps from the trees by the motorway and a chiffchaff from the willows by the path onto the meadows but none of them seemed to have their heart in it, just a few sporadic bursts. The same could be said of the whitethroats out on the open ground but there was about a dozen of them so the songscape felt a bit more sustained.

Northern (I think) marsh orchid, Stretford Meadows

The meadows were awash with marsh orchids, peppering the landscape with purple spikes, some of them as tall as my knee. I think they're Northern marsh orchids but there were a few smaller, paler specimens that may have been one of the other species, or hybrids, or just smaller, paler Northern marsh orchids.

The carrion crows have done well this year, with four youngsters making a racket as they flew over. No sign of the kestrels but the buzzard was about and being buzzed by jackdaws. Dunnocks skittered about in the bushes with the whitethroats.

Painted lady, Stretford Meadows

Five-spot burnet moth, Stretford Meadows

At last there was a profusion of butterflies. There were lots of ringlets, all newly-emerged with velvety black wings and all so fidgety and fast-moving they were impossible to photograph. There were also a few meadow browns, a couple of small tortoiseshells and two painted ladies were holding territories in patches of nettles by hawthorn bushes. There were also lots of burnet moths about, a mixed blessing because all though they're things of beauty they have no sense of direction and there's no guarantee that if you don't duck they won't fly into you. (No idea why I was identifying them as cinnabar moths, must be the heat getting to the brain.)

I'd got so into looking at the orchids and butterflies that I almost missed the pheasant calling by the cricket pitch. I didn't miss hearing a snatch of lesser whitethroat song from the depths of a clump of great willowherb but I was damned if I could see it.

I walked down along Kickety Brook towards Stretford Ees. Wrens and chiffchaffs sang in the trees by the path. Once I passed under Chester Road the trees got busier, with families of great tits and blue tits bustling about, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, song thrushes and woodpigeons singing, and the squeak of young robins in the undergrowth.

Spot the jay. I didn't until a family of willow tits pointed it out.
By Kickety Brook

Song thrush, by Kickety Brook

Willow tit, by Kickety Brook

At first I thought a loud burst of bad-tempered churring was one of the great tit families but it turned out to be a family of willow tits — a pair and at least one youngster — taking exception to a jay loitering deep undercover. Some great tits came along to see what the fuss was about and joined in with the barracking.

Butterburs, Stretford Ees

I walked through Stretford Ees along the path by the tramlines. A few ring-necked parakeets squawked and rattled in the trees and a couple of reed buntings sang in the tall grass.

Broad Ees Dole, the"teal pool"

There was a swimming competition going on at Sale Water Park so all the mute swans and Canada geese were clustered over by the pavilion out of the way with a couple of mallards and a great crested grebe. Most of the rest of the mallards were in deep cover under the willow roots on Broad Ees Dole together with a couple of herons and a handful of dabchicks. A couple of pairs of coots were on their second broods. Despite the swimmers approaching quite close by a reed warbler was singing in the tiny patch of reeds on the lake.

Great tit crowd scene, Sale Water Park

A couple of dozen great tits monopolised the feeders by the cafe despite the best intentions of a squirrel, a few ring-necked parakeets and a few passers-by who stopped too close to watch the fun.

The bridge at Jackson's Boat is still closed. I didn't fancy the walk back, nor yet walking down to Kenworthy Gardens to go over the bridge into Chorlton Water Park so I got the tram into Chorlton and made my way home from there. 

Marsh orchids, Stretford Meadows

Plan Z

Skipool Creek

The plan had been to have a day out at Hodbarrow to see if/how the little terns are faring. The Barrow train wasn't amongst the cancellations at Oxford Road though it was a lot busier than usual, probably because of some of the earlier cancellations. We got as far as Wigan without any problems then spent half an hour waiting for a driver. In the end the driver who had finished at Wigan took the train up to Preston where the train was cancelled. Looking at the options, assuming nothing untoward happened at Lancaster or Barrow the earliest I would be arriving at Millom would be quarter to three. Given how tricky it is getting back to Manchester from West Cumbria when the trains are behaving themselves I didn't fancy my chances of getting home much before midnight. In fact, heading anywhere North of Preston on the Northern trains looked a bit too much of a gamble. So I was stuck with an old man's explorer ticket to get some value from.

In the end I got the next Blackpool train, got off at Poulton le Fylde and had a walk up to Skipool Creek. The river was high so there wasn't a lot about save a few mallards and gulls and a solitary little egret on the far bank. I walked up the Stanah Tramper Trail along the river up to Stanah. A couple of buzzards soaring high over the other side of the river towards Hambleton were harassed by carrion crows. A couple of chiffchaffs sang in the trees, a reed bunting sang in the field by the path. There seemed to be a blackbird feeding on the path every hundred yards.

Skipool Creek

There was more bird life in the fields at Stanah, mostly woodpigeons and house sparrows with collared doves, greenfinches and goldfinches. A pair of corn buntings in a hawthorn bush in a field of sheep was a nice surprise.

It was a bit of a bust birdwatching wise but the weather held and it's a nice walk. Again I was concerned about the dearth of butterflies about.

I walked into Thornton, got the bus back to Poulton and went home via Bolton and Crewe just to get some sort of value out of my train ticket. Which reminded me I haven't visited Sandbach Flashes yet this year.

Cheshire bumper bundle

Canada goose, Spike Island

I thought it more than high time I had a wander along the Mersey Estuary at Hale. I got the train to Liverpool South Parkway and missed the 90 into Speke because it was running late and the driver didn't bother slowing down at the interchange and was gone before the automatic doors were open. So I walked down into Garstang for the 82a to Hale and happened to catch the bus I would have connected with anyway and got a couple of retail area buzzards onto the day list as well. Top tip for next time: the Arriva day saver ticket I bought covers Greater Manchester as well as Merseyside and Cheshire so I could have saved ten pounds by going to Wigan, getting the bus to Warrington and travelling on from there.

Arriving at Hale it was a heavy, muggy sort of a day and a stiff breeze coming in from the river stopped it feeling like being in someone's armpit. The village was full of singing blackbirds, greenfinches and collared doves and a flock of swifts joined the house martins feeding over the rooftops.

Looking over the Mersey towards Ince, all the black dots on the water are Canada geese

I walked down to the lighthouse. The skylarks in the field of wheat to my right were very active and three or four took turns to make sure there was always at least one singing on the wing. A flock of half a dozen linnets commuted between the hedgerow and the field. A couple of meadow pipits had flown over and landed in the potato field on my left so when five pipit-shaped birds rose from there I assumed they were more of the same. Then one called and I realised there was a yellow wagtail in there. They wheeled overhead and flew back into the field, giving me the chance to identify them as a family of yellow wagtails including three youngsters.

Hale Lighthouse, the wind turbines are on Frodsham Marsh

The river was high but the tide was starting to ebb. Crowds of black-headed gulls, herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafed on the shallow waters over the sand banks. A couple of shelduck flew past and one dozed by the nearby bank. Over on the far side the mud under the bank was littered with black dots. As I scanned the scene, most of the tall shapes turned out to be cormorants, though there were enough poles stuck in the mud to stop me getting complacent about it. The rest of the dots were hundreds of Canada geese with a small number of ducks, all but a few drake mallards remained unidentifiable.

Skylark, Hale Lighthouse

I walked down the path, all the while being serenaded by skylarks and reed buntings. A couple of sedge warblers sang in rough patches of reeds and cow parsley in the river bank. A couple of little egrets flew over but didn't settle. A sudden burst of angry crow noises heralded the arrival of a buzzard which paid no heed and floated on towards the village.

Barley field, Hale

I took the path that goes inland past the barley fields and into the woods, thence into Hale Park. A heron rose from the ditch by the path and that, in turn, spooked a flock of woodpigeons deep in the barley.

The woodland was busy with robins, wrens and blackcaps while blackbirds, mistle thrushes and linnets fed on the grass in the park.

I'd noticed that the 82a carries on through Widnes on its way to Runcorn and stops a couple of streets away from Spike Island so I caught the next one and hopped over. As the bus headed towards Widnes the clouds started to clear and it became sunnier and less clammy.

Whooper swan, Spike Island

There was a large herd of mute swans on the canal by the car park at Spike Island. Much to my surprise the whooper swan that summered here last year was sitting by the lock gates. It's obviously found life here much to its liking. A couple of families of mute swans with young cygnets kept away from the herd.

I had a bit of a wander. Chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang in the trees and whitethroats, reed buntings and dunnocks sang out in the open.

Heron, Spike Island

I spent a while scanning the river as there had been reports of ruddy shelducks round here over the weekend. A couple of distant dark shapes feeding with a shelduck on the far bank beyond the bridge looked promising but a change of position and light made it clear that it was a drake mallard and, probably, his duck.

Herring gull, Spike Island
Graceful looking individuals with small heads like this, I think a second calendar year female, always make me look twice. The back looks dark, too, though the actual shade of grey is typical herring gull. As it is I don't need to get into the details of the plumage for the ID, the bill is too short for Caspian gull.

There were small groups of lapwings, redshanks and oystercatchers littered the mud banks on the river. The groups of loafing lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls were bigger, the herring gulls tended to be roaming round in ones and twos.

Canada geese, Spike Island

Families of Canada geese loafed on the river bank or grazed on the grass below the stanchions of the bridge.

As I walked back along the canal I bumped into the whooper swan again with the herd of mute swans lazily drifting upstream to feed.

Whooper swan, Spike Island

I was a lot worried by the lack of butterflies at both sites (to be honest I'm quite concerned about it in general this year). Insect life all told seems a bit quiet this month.

The stop for the bus to Warrington is just round the corner from the car park. I got that, had ten minutes to wait for the bus to Wigan and got the train home from there. It would have been an hour and a half quicker to have got the train from Warrington but I was on an adventure and didn't mind saving four quid. It'll definitely be worth doing a bit more exploring with one of these saver tickets.