Mersey Valley

Long-tailed tit, Broad Ees Dole

It was good weather for walking so I decided to take a stroll down to Stretford Meadows and on through to Sale Water Park. In the event I carried on through Chorlton Water Park and on to Kenworthy Woods.

It was cloudy with the promise of getting sunny later on and there was a fresh breeze which kept it comfortable. I was barely halfway across the garden centre car park at the bottom of Newcroft Road when a young buzzard flew low overhead heading towards Urmston.

The path onto the meadows was reassuringly muddy, I'd scarcely negotiated the puddles when I noticed something flitting about the tops of the young trees just ahead of me. My first thought was a sand martin but it was fluttering rather than swooping about the treetops and seemed to be gleaning insects from the leaves. As soon as I had my binoculars on it it was obviously a bat. It wasn't any bat I could recognise: it was too big for any of the pipistrelles but way too small for a noctule, definitely not one of the long-eared bats, or horseshoe bats either, and Daubenton's bats don't feed like that. By a process of elimination it was either a Brandt's bat, a Natterer's bat or a whiskered bat. I watched it for half a minute before it disappeared into the tall trees. I then spent quarter of an hour looking at bat identification pages. The feeding method fitted Natterer's or whiskered best but it looked too dark to be a Natterer's bat so I'm pretty sure it was a whiskered bat. I was surprised — to put it mildly — to see one out at this time of day but I suppose if it was hungry or had hungry mouths to feed it had no choice. Or it might have been disturbed and decided that while it was up it might as well get something to eat.

Stretford Meadows 

There's a new information sign at the car park and I'd been scoffing at the decision to depict a great spotted woodpecker instead of a whitethroat or a reed bunting. I had to take it back after seeing no buntings, hearing just the one whitethroat and seeing a great spotted woodpecker fly out from the cricket pitch and off over the motorway. 

Stretford Meadows 

There were plenty of carrion crows and magpies kicking about and a steady traffic of woodpigeons overhead. Half a dozen linnets joined the charm of goldfinches feeding on the thistledown. A painted lady and a couple of meadow browns were busy on a patch of knapweed.

Painted lady, Stretford Meadows

I walked down along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees. It had become sunny and the butterflies (large whites and speckled woods) were busy and squirrels dozed on branches in the hedgerows. Here and there there'd be the rustle of great tits or robins in the undergrowth or woodpigeons feeding in the hawthorns. A migrant hawker gave me the once-over then zoomed off on its way.

Hornet hoverfly, Stretford Ees
I never realised they had such jolly bottoms

Stretford Ees was very quiet, odd pairs of woodpigeons passed overhead, a couple of magpies fed on the grass and a chiffchaff, a wren and a blackbird called in the trees by the tram lines in response to passing cyclists.

Stretford Ees

Sale Water Park was busy with jet skis, kayaks and swimming competitions so all the birdlife on the big lake hugged the water margins or else joined the mute swans mugging passersby at the car park. The herd of swans is two dozen strong now. There were similar numbers of Canada geese, coots and mallards and a few black-headed gulls. A couple of great crested grebes kept to the reeds with the families of young coots.

Canada geese and mallards, Broad Ees Dole

Broad Ees Dole was busy with birds. A couple of dozen mallards loafed on the Teal Pool. I was checking that they were all mallards when a kingfisher shot by at close quarters. Try as I might I didn't find where it went. More mallards loafed with the coots, Canada geese, herons and gadwalls on the islands by the hide. Moorhens fussed about, black-headed gulls fidgeted and a stock dove came down for a drink. It took me a while to find any dabchicks, one of the adults was supervising a youngster's fishing expeditions in the duckweed. All the while I kept getting distracted by long-tailed tits bouncing round in the vegetation in the ditch in front of the hide.

The path around the lake was littered with damselflies, mostly common blue damsels with a few blue-tailed damsels. A brown hawker patrolled the tops of the hedgerows. There wasn't a lot of food put out on the feeders by the café but there was enough to keep a nuthatch interested while great tits, coal tits and a robin flitted in and out.

Ring-necked parakeet, Jackson's Boat

I walked up to Jackson's Boat unsure whether to call it quits and walk through Hardy Farm to get the bus or carry on to Chorlton Water Park. While I was being busy being indecisive a ring-necked parakeet made a racket just above my head. It took a few minutes to find it despite it's being big and noisy and just twelve feet away. It's amazing how well they blend in with sycamore leaves.

I crossed the bridge and found myself walking down the river on autopilot. There was a total absence of ducks or wagtails on the water. More woodpigeons passed overhead, a couple of crows called from the tops of trees by the golf course and chiffchaffs, blue tits and greenfinches foraged in the hedgerow. I was almost at Chorlton Water Park when a flock of swallows flew in to feed over the river, the only hirundines of the day.

Chorlton Water Park 

Chorlton Water Park was understandably busy so I just had a quick turn around the lake. The black-headed gulls were back in numbers, the Canada geese and mallards crowded round the runways where people might have some food for them. There weren't many mute swans on the lake today and no obvious reason why not .The trees were quiet save for the occasional chiffchaff and a couple of parakeets.

Grey squirrel, Kenworthy Woods

I didn't fancy traipsing up to Southern Cemetery for the bus home so I crossed the river and walked through Kenworthy Woods for the 101 into Manchester. For a change I followed the road straight through and was rewarded by jays, magpies and goldfinches feeding on the roadside while blackbirds, a mixed tit flock and some chiffchaffs fed in the hedgerows. Squirrels fed in the hawthorn bushes and a great spotted woodpecker called from the tall trees just behind.

Chorlton Water Park 

I'd intended this to be a short dawdle but ended up spending four hours wandering about. It had been a good walk, the birdwatching had been pretty good for this time of year and how often do you see a bat feeding in broad daylight?

Leighton Moss

Heron

I decided to risk it with a visit to Leighton Moss and, for once, the trains behaved themselves. It was a relatively quiet day's birdwatching but there was enough about to keep me on my toes and the weather made for pleasant walking.

As the train approached Silverdale I could see that there was more water on the pools by the coastal hides, but rather a lot less birds, just three mallards.

Things picked up at Leighton Moss. Goldfinches, nuthatches and bullfinches were calling in the garden but the only birds showing themselves were the usual gang if mallards in the picnic area and the titmice and chaffinches on the feeders. A couple of chiffchaffs called from within the willows but I couldn't pin them down.

Shoveler on a stick

Gadwalls

Redshank and greenshank

The hides tended to be busy but there were enough birds about to distract from the chatter. There were only a handful of young black-headed gulls on at Lilian's Hide. On the other hand there were fifty-odd coots, a similar number of mallards and a couple of dozen gadwall. The supporting cast included a few drake pochards in their leaden eclipse plumage, a couple of dabchicks, a dozing mute swan and a shoveler dozing on a stick. I noticed a greenshank walking over one of the nesting rafts, grabbed my camera and it had turned into a redshank. The greenshank had sat down on the raft and the redshank walked up and sat down in front of it.

Heading for the reedbed hides 

The walk down to the reedbed hides was very quiet. A couple of juvenile robins flitted about the undergrowth and a chiffchaff called from the treetops. Some furtive rustlings by one of the drains turned out to be a water vole heading for cover.

Just outside the Tim Jackson Hide a mixed tit flock — long-tailed tits and blue tits — bounced silently about through the willows. There weren't a lot of birds at the hide: a heron, a handful of dozing mallards, a couple of dabchicks and a family of moorhens. Most of the activity was broad-bodied chasers chasing each other over the pools.

At the Griesdale Hide 

A couple of willow warblers called from the trees on the way to the Griesdale Hide. Unusually I didn't see or hear any reed warblers, sedge warblers or Cetti's warblers here today. The sky was even quieter than the reeds with just a handful of swifts flying very high overhead. Again dragonflies provided the main action with brown hawkers patrolling the reeds at head height.

The great black-backs that had nested on the osprey platform at Griesdale had been and gone. There were a few coots, mallards and gadwall on the pool. Common hawkers and brown hawkers were laying eggs at the water margins while a couple of emperor dragonflies patrolled the reeds.

Leighton Moss looking towards Warton Crag

As I walked back to the visitor centre I checked the trains. The afternoon cancellations meant that if I decided to visit the Causeway Hide I'd have at least a two hour wait for the next train and an uncertain connection at Lancaster for a train back to Manchester, so I decided against.

As I arrived at the visitor centre a juvenile treecreeper detached itself from a charm of goldfinches to sit and preen on a tree trunk by the path. A quick check of the feeding stations found one of the marsh tits I hadn't seen by the wooded path.

Juvenile treecreeper

It had been a relatively quiet visit, it's not often you only see thirty species of birds in two hours here. It seemed odd not to see a single marsh harrier.

I was tempted to stop off at Lancaster and get the bus out to Confer Green to try and connect with the Temminck's stint that's been there the last few days but I lost my bottle when I looked at how the trains were running and headed off home.

Mosses

Kestrel, Chat Moss

Today's plans were derailed by cancelled trains again so I decided on a wander across the Salford Mosses.

I got the train to Irlam and walked up Astley Road. It seems odd to be saying it was very, very quiet when there were literally hundreds of woodpigeons about and probably a hundred swallows. A couple of small flocks of goldfinches twitted in the trees near the Jack Russell's gate, I disturbed a couple of blackbirds and wrens, a greenfinch flew over, a chaffinch bathed in one of yesterday's puddles. And that was pretty much it. 

Chat Moss 

There weren't even many butterflies, and nearly all those were large whites (the other two were speckled woods). The only bird of prey was a kestrel hovering over the stables near Four Lanes End. Even for this time of year it was very, very quiet.

Kestrel, Chat Moss

As I approached Little Woolden Moss I heard the contact call of a whitethroat from deep in the willowherbs in the drain by the path and a willow warbler calling from the willows by the car park. A mixed flock of swallows and house martins flew low over and headed over the moss. The only buzzard of the day flew low over the trees and headed off towards Astley Moss.

There was a handful more willow warblers to be heard and seen on Little Woolden Moss. A few linnets flew about, a couple of reed buntings fossicked in the scrub, more woodpigeons flew overhead and the family of carrion crows were bouncing round on what little damp mud was left after the dry weather. It took an age to find the one and only pied wagtail, a youngster still looking a bit brown about the wings. At one point three kestrels hovered over the moss, at least one of which was a juvenile bird. They went their separate ways, two flying towards Glazebury, the third heading for Astley Road. I walked round to Little Woolden Hall without adding to the day's tally. 

Female common darter, Little Woolden Moss

Although there weren't many butterflies about there were plenty of dragonflies. It was slow going at first, just a few black darters buzzing round the path. Things picked up a lot when I got to the junction with the path to New Moss Lane. Brown and common hawkers patrolled the tops of the bracken. A couple of common hawkers came up and gave me the eyeball, it's very unsettling to have a large dragonfly hovering at the tip of your nose. One settled on my chest for a while like some mad art deco brooch. Common darters joined the black darters along the path, when they weren't chasing each other round the heather. A female common blue damselfly had me puzzled for a bit, I usually identify them by the company they keep and I'm not good at picking up the ID points quickly.

Male common darter, Little Woolden Moss

Walking past Little Woolden Hall I kept one eye on the trajectories of the model aeroplanes doing spins and stalls over the field by the path and the other on the flock of swallows hawking over the fields and returning to nests in a disused stable. Linnets and goldfinches fed on thistledown and a handful of pied wagtails bounced and chased each other around a field of horses.

By Little Woolden Hall 

I walked down to Glazebrook — more woodpigeons, swallows and house martins — and got the train home. It had been a very nice three hours' walk, albeit with a less than spectacular bit of birdwatching.

Little Woolden Moss from Holcombe Lane 

Flixton

Robin, Fly Ash Hill

I thought I'd ease myself into the week with a local toddle within a bus ride away, the wisdom of which became apparent when I saw the local train into Manchester hd been cancelled. So I had an early lunch and got the 256 for an afternoon's dawdle round Wellacre Country Park.

Wellacre Wood was as deceptively quiet as my back garden (where something has eaten a pound of suet pellets in a day and a half). I eventually started finding the starlings feasting on blackberries and the spadgers rummaging about in the brambles for greenfly. The long-tailed tits and blue tits were shadows in the undergrowth, the great spotted woodpecker a call in the treetops and the robins and wrens just bad-tempered scoldings from deep in the ivies. A great tit took pity and came out in the open long enough for me not to be just not quick enough to get its photo.

The butterflies considerably outnumbered the birds. Most were large whites and gatekeepers, a few commas fed on blackberries and a common blue flitted by the bramble patch. Speckled woods flitted about within the wood, appropriately enough.

Wellacre Country Park 

Out on the fields it was dead quiet: a couple of magpies fossicked around in a far corner. There was a constant stream of woodpigeons flying to and fro overhead. A few spadgers called from the hedgerows on Jack Lane and a couple of swallows flew by.

Jack Lane 

Jack Lane nature reserve was quietly busy: I knew there were birds about by the occasional calls or the sight of some unidentifiable something disappearing behind leaves. A reed warbler sang deep in the reedbed while a couple of sedge warblers sang by the path. A reed bunting practised it's song, making a bit of a start then burbling into subsong.

The small dark object that silently hopped into the reeds may have been anything. While I was trying to find it I spotted a couple of brown hawkers laying eggs in the small pool. It's not often I see brown hawkers slow down enough to see properly. Usually I just see a panatella cigar whizzing past before zigzagging its way across the landscape. Today I got the chance to be reminded that they have green markings on the thorax.

Brown hawker, Jack Lane

Dutton's Pond was full of mallards today, a couple of dozen of them all told. The young moorhens are all full grown now but still pretty noisy.

I walked under the railway through to Fly Ash Hill. Blue tits, chiffchaffs and robins flitted about in the bit of woodland by the houses. There was a great spotted woodpecker in there somewhere but I couldn't see it. The open ground was very quiet of birds, just a few woodpigeons flying overhead. There were lots of meadow browns and peacocks feeding on the knapweeds by the path.

There was nothing on the river by Flixton Bridge. One of the crack willows had split and half the tree had fallen into the river. I rather hoped something might have been perched in there but no luck.

I decided to call it quits, it had been a decent couple of hours' birdwatching and with Arriva buses still being on strike there was no point in setting out for a stroll across Carrington Moss (I'd end up having to carry on walking over to Altrincham to get the tram back to Stretford).

July round-up

July's always a difficult birding month, most of the small birds are quietly going through their post-breeding moult, the ducks are hiding while they moult their wing feathers and the weather can be a bit overwhelming. Add to that this year bus strikes, rail strikes and train services that were as reliable as a government promise when they were running and I didn't get about nearly as much as intended.

Having said all that it was a productive month with a total of 113 species seen, rather to my surprise. 

I try to get a bit further afield in July and August to keep the year list ticking over during the Summer lull. That paid dividends with the trip out to Bempton giving me a pair of life ticks in black-browed albatross and red-tailed shrike, as well as some very welcome puffins and gannets. I finally bumped into Egyptian geese at Pennington Flash and a green sandpiper at Martin Mere and I struck lucky with Manx shearwaters at Lytham.

Spoonbills, cattle egrets and wood sandpipers are still notable absentees on the year list, which should give me an incentive not to be any too idle. It's also a bit thin on peeps so I'll need to do a bit more beach watching in the hopes of seeing sanderlings and/or little stints now the waders have started their return passage.

The year list's currently at 194. I wonder if I'll hit 200 in August.

Salford

Heron

I looked at the morning's cancellations and gave up on today's plans to visit Leighton Moss. Every other train to Barrow was cancelled and given how much a problem getting home can be when services are running properly I decided I could do without the grief.

I noticed that I've not seen any goosanders this month so I went for a toddle along the Irwell between Lower Broughton and Peel Park in Salford.

River Irwell, Lower Broughton 

The flock of Canada geese at Broughton Bridge was smaller than usual, just a couple of dozen birds. There were a few more on the river but nothing like the usual crowd scenes. The Mocha Shopping Centre has been demolished and the Arriva buses that service this stop are on strike but that may be coincidental.

Black-headed gulls

Goosander

The river was very low, exposing gravel banks that are usually just odd bits of turbulence in the river. There were lots of black-headed gulls about with a few lesser black-backs to quarrel with. A redhead goosander loafed on a bit of old tree trunk, there were a few more upstream loafing on the shoals. A heron stalked  near the bank by the bridge, upstream an older bird in full breeding plumage lurked by the Adelphi Bridge. It took me a while to spot the grey wagtail foraging on the far bank, I never did manage to see the chiffchaffs and long-tailed tits calling in the hedgerow by the path.

Goosanders

Peel Park was quieter, a few mallards and black-headed gulls on the river with a Canada goose and a couple of lesser black-backs. I think both of the black-backs were third year birds, one had an enormous bill which I think suggests it was a male. There was a big flock of black-headed gulls up by the Frederick Road bridge, loafing on the gravel banks.

Lesser black-back

I'd had a bit of a potter about and didn't much fancy going back into the city centre so I crossed over the road and got the 100 back to the Trafford Centre then into Urmston for a bit of shopping.

Martin Mere

Sedge warbler, Martin Mere

I decided to have another go at tackling Martin Mere today. The Barrow train was cancelled again but I just had enough time to run between platforms at Deansgate to catch the Blackpool train and make a connection with the slow train to Southport at Salford Crescent. 

I got off at New Lane and took the long way round, taking the pedestrian crossing over the railway near Langley's Brook then following the path round the reedbed walk and on to Martin Mere.

There was some work being done at the water treatment works (I didn't envy the workmen on a warm, muggy day like today) so there wasnt a crowd of birds about, just a few black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs and a couple of pied wagtails. The house martins and swifts were feeding quite high up. There weren't many birds in the hedges, just a couple of blackbirds, but they were more than made up for by the crowds of butterflies, mostly gatekeepers and meadow browns. 

Fennel 

Just before the crossing one of the fields has been entirely planted with fennel, presumably for the seeds because it was all in full flower. It smelt wonderful and provided cover for chiffchaffs, whitethroats and a pheasant.

Kestrel, Langley's Brook

Meadow brown, Langley's Brook

Peacock, Langley's Brook

The field on the other side of the line was awash with meadow browns. The sheer number of them distracted me from a buzzard and a kestrel that were both hunting over the field. At the bottom of the field in the thistles and nettles a mass emergence of peacocks outnumbered the meadow browns. A mixed flock of linnets and goldfinches fed on the thistle seeds.

Heading towards the reedbed walk 

I turned onto the path that goes round the reedbed walk. It was notable for being very quiet, any other time of year it's heaving with bird song and bodies. A couple of chiffchaffs called, a willow warbler took exception to me and a few blackbirds could be heard rustling and muttering in the undergrowth. 

There were yet more butterflies all along the path. Dragonflies, too: brown hawkers and common hawkers patrolled the reed borders, a couple of emperor dragonflies hunted in the trees. One emperor flew close to me, caught a fly and ate it as it flew off. 

I came to one of the gates and had a scan round the small pools I could see through the reeds and spotted a couple of ducks dabbling round the edges, a young mallard and a female shoveler. I could hear, but not see, a lot of greylags. Towards the end of the path I could hear a reed warbler practising its subsong and a sedge warbler poked its head out of the undergrowth to make sure I wasn't trouble.

Juvenile shelducks, Martin Mere

Lapwings and juvenile common tern, Martin Mere

The mere was relatively quiet: there weren't the huge crowds of black-headed gulls or ducks of earlier in the year. Lapwings were the most numerous birds, perhaps a couple of hundred of them. There were perhaps fifty black-headed gulls about, equal numbers adults and youngsters, with a few common terns and their young mingling in with them. Most of the ducks are skulking in cover elsewhere while they moult their wing feathers, there were just half a dozen mallards hiding in the vegetation on the islands. The juvenile shelducks have been left to their own devices, some have taken to the bird gardens, a couple of dozen of them kept each other company on the mere. The adults have nearly all gone off to their moulting quarters, there was just the one to be seen today. Other than lapwings the waders were conspicuously lacking. It's unusual not to see even one ruff or black-tailed godwit. I was just lamenting this when a flash of black and white like a big house martin shot across the far bank, my first green sandpiper of the year.

The Hale Hide was even quieter, just half a dozen young mallards hiding in the reeds.

A walk down to the Ron Barker Hide was accompanied by twitching leaves and branches, some of which turned out to be long-tailed tits, robins or blue tits. Tree sparrows chirruped from the depths of hawthorn bushes. At least the moorhens showed themselves, a couple of them were busy feeding on the first of the season's windfall apples.

Lapwings and whooper swans, Martin Mere

Green sandpiper, Martin Mere

The first thing that struck me at the Ron Barker Hide was how dry the marsh was. It was evident that the remaining pools weren't very deep, barely ankle-high on a lapwing. There were more juvenile shelducks with the lapwings and a couple of teal lurking by the reed margins. A couple of families of greylags grazed the banks. I was surprised to see a couple of pairs of whoopers, it's not unusual for one or two individuals to stay behind for the Summer but these were obviously paired birds. Just when I'd got to thinking about moving on I noticed a green sandpiper shuffling out into the open on one of the islands.

On my way back I had an unsuccessful look in the ivies for any tawny owls.

Red Cat Lane 

I headed off for Burscough Bridge and the train home. Swallows hawked low over the barley fields while house martins swooped and chipped high overhead. There must have been fifty of them feeding over the farmyard at the corner of Curlew Lane. The collared doves at Brandeth Barn have had a good year: fifteen of them were lined up on the gutter of the potato store. I looked and listened in vain for any corn buntings.

A covey of grey partridges, Red Cat Lane

Just before I got into town I noticed a lot of activity in one of the paddocks. A covey of about twenty grey partridges rushed away from the roadside and into the next field.

I timed it right for getting the train back, which is just as well as the next train was cancelled. It had been another of those quiet July days where the birdwatching was hard work but still quite productive, I'd somehow managed to see fifty-four species while all the time thinking I wasn't seeing much.