Local patch

Barton Clough 

It was one of those days when the sun pokes out for five minutes every so often but is otherwise dreich. The back garden was treated to cameo appearances by the usual suspects while yesterday's counts of 107 black-headed gulls and ten herring gulls on the school playing field was almost met by 98 black-headed gulls and six herring gulls today. After the heavy rains of the night I was expecting a higher number but gulls are nothing if not awkward buggers.

It being a Sunday but still my wanting to stretch my legs I decided on a wander round my local patch which turned out to be fairly quiet save for singing robins and a song thrush.

• Black-headed gull 5
• Blackbird 4
• Blue tit 5
• Carrion crow 1
• Coal tit 2
• Dunnock 1
• Feral pigeon 2
• Goldfinch 5
• Great spotted woodpecker 1
• Great tit 1
• Magpie 19
• Redwing 3
• Robin 8
• Song thrush 1
• Starling 5
• Woodpigeon 6

It was nice to see the first rabbit of the year, too.

Hindley

Amberswood 

Waking to what would be a nice day in early March after the first decent night's sleep in a week I persuaded myself out of a jaunt out to try and catch a glimpse of the male smew at Lapwing Hall Lake (it's theoretically doable by bus but knowing what country buses in Cheshire are like I'd like the safety net of a train service back to Manchester to fall back on). The temptation to bus it over to Southport for a wild goose chase was allayed by a skein of thirty-odd pink-footed geese flying overhead. That bus trip's best postponed to February when there's more daylight hours.

Herring gulls, Lostock School 

Things were a little quieter in the back garden this morning, though the spadgers piled in mob-handed when I refilled the feeders. Over on the playing field seventy-odd black-headed gulls loafed about while a few herring gulls danced for worms. One of the first-Winter birds pushed its luck begging for worms and got pretty short shrift. A big brute of a Scandinavian herring gull flew in (darker grey wings and mantle, big white mirrors on the wings, hefty but not yellow-legged gull hefty). After throwing its weight about for a couple of minutes amongst the black-headed gulls it heaved off elsewhere. The Scandinavian subspecies isn't uncommon but there's so much variation in gulls and the light can make such a difference in the shade of grey on their backs that it's uncommon for me to be sure when I see one.

I headed for the Trafford Centre for a pot luck trip out: if the first bus out was a 20 it would be Worsley Woods, if a 22 then Clifton Country Park if a 132 then Amberswood. As it was, the 132 had, unusually, arrived and was taking on passengers so the die was cast. I took a sparrowhawk putting the wind up the pigeons in Tyldseley town centre as we passed through as a good omen.

Amberswood 

It had been quiet and sunny right up to the point where I joined the path into Amberswood. About a hundred yards down the wind got up and the clouds darkened and I thought I was in for it but just as suddenly the wind died down and it became a mild, thinly clouded afternoon.

Amberswood 

Loosely organised mixed tit flocks bounced around in the bushes either side of the path. The blue tits were easier to see than the long-tailed tits which were much easier to see than the great tits and the willow tit that was calling was hard work. A treecreeper reminded me of the pitfalls of trying to photograph active small birds in January woodlands. A small flock of goldfinches was active in the treetops. I fancied I could hear siskins about but couldn't confirm it.

Amberswood 

There were a few dozen black-headed gulls on the lake accompanied by a lesser black-back, a common gull and half a dozen tufted ducks. The mallards at the Southern end of the lake kept to the reeds until a couple of anglers packed their bags.

Mallards, Low Hall

I crossed the road into Low Hall. I'd decided I was going to have an explore to see where the paths went,  the vague intent being to get to Bickershaw. I stopped to check that the mallards, tufties and black-headed gulls on the pond with the mute swans were mallards, tufties and black-headed gulls on the pond with the mute swans and they were.

Low Hall 

I followed the winding path through the woods. There's not a lot of undergrowth so there was only the occasional blackbird, robin or wren about. When I got to the path that runs parallel to the old colliery rail line I turned left away from Platt Bridge and headed towards Hindley Green. 

No.

A way down the path split into three, I followed the one going under the railway and out into the open. I'm not sure how permanent the pond is, it was busy with black-headed gulls and mallards. It probably doesn't usually cover the path in a foot of water. Not wanting to go for a wade and not fancying the alternative of a picturesque wander through the travellers' site I retraced my steps and passed back under the bridge.

A rather intimate coupling of ash trees

Of the two remaining paths, one circles back to where I started on Liverpool Road. The one I took meandered very roughly in parallel to the railway track before joining it in woodland at Hindley Green. Here and there there were clearings of tall rough grass where magpies chartered and chaffinches foraged in the trees. A kestrel hunted over one large clearing by the railway.

Walking from Low Hall to Hindley Green 

I joined the track into Hindley Green where I decided that rather than traipse half a mile through the village to get to a bus stop I'd take the track down to Bickershaw which wasn't much further and had the bus stop for the regular bus to Leigh at the end of it. I hadn't realised, because the maps don't tell you, that the path runs alongside the perimeter fence of HMP Hindley. Which didn't stop mixed tit flocks flitting about in the hedgerows.

I got to Bickershaw and got the bus. It had been an interesting little walk. If I do it again it should be in late Spring when there are warblers about but not yet too much cover.

Mersey Valley

Gadwall, Sale Water Park

It was another dreary day and I was feeling knackered after a few nights' fairly atrocious sleep (my own fault, I tweaked a nerve in my shoulder on the bus the other day, I'm at an age where I'm not as mechanically sound as my boots). 

There was consolation in the birdlife in the back garden, the mild weather after last night's rain seemed to have brought everything out. All except the spadgers, they drifted in in ones and twos and didn't linger. This gave the blue tits, coal tits and great tits the time to linger, and linger they did. They spent all morning either in the rambling rose in the company of the dunnocks or in the hazel bush in the company of a few long-tailed tits. A couple of goldfinches drifted by but didn't stop once they'd had a quick hit at the sunflower seeds. A greenfinch that had been tagging along with them didn't leave the sycamores on the embankment. When I first moved here they were regulars, last year I just had the one visit. A nice surprise was half a dozen redwings in the sycamores with the pair of mistle thrushes that have been flitting between the school playing field and Moss Park this past few days.

There were "only" fifty-odd black-headed gulls on the school playing field today, together with half a dozen herring gulls.

I dragged myself out for a walk to get some exercise and fresh air. Walking down to Stretford Meadows it struck me that you'd never know the woodpigeons were absent without leave in November.

Not today, thank you

At Stretford Meadows I kept to the Transpennine Trail, the footpaths onto the tip were a bit too interesting for comfort. The hedgerows were heaving with blackbirds, robins and great tits. Goldfinches and dunnocks flitted about the trees on the edge of the meadow while carrion crows and magpies bounced about in the open. There was a steady stream of woodpigeons and black-headed gulls overhead.

Walking along Kickety Brook to Stretford Ees I was aware of lots of small birds quietly going about their business in the trees and hedgerows. A family of long-tailed tits passed by a loose collection of blue tits, great tits and chaffinches. A great spotted woodpecker was uncharacteristically silent as it watched me go by, unlike a pair of ring-necked parakeets. Goldfinches, robins, blackbirds and a bullfinch fossicked about in the hawthorn bushes by the path while magpies rattled and squabbled in the treetops.

Stretford Ees

I kept to the main path on Stretford Ees, the others were a bit damp. For once there weren't any titmice in the trees but there were bullfinches and redwings.

There were a couple of hundred black-headed gulls on the lake at Sale Water Park together with a dozen or so lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls and common gulls. It was a relief to see that at least half the mute swans survived the avian flu outbreak though there was just a handful of Canada geese. 

Teal and mallard, Broad Ees Dole
I sometimes wonder if other waterfowl object to mallards' blowing their cover away quite so comprehensively.

The teal pool on Broad Ees Dole was well-stocked with teal though you could have missed them dozing in the willows were it not for the bright red feet of the mallards sleeping with them. There wasn't a huge variety on the hide pool: half a dozen herons, a couple of dozen magpies and a few coot. All the dabchicks were on the main lake, fishing around the margins of the reedbeds with the coots and great crested grebes. I swapped urban myths about the origins of the local parakeets with a bloke who'd stopped by the hide for a smoke and a cup of coffee.

Lesser black-back, Sale Water Park

I walked along the lakeside to Cow Lane. It felt strange to see that gadwalls outnumbered mute swans and Canada geese in the crowds by the slipway cadging from passersby. This isn't a complaint, I'm very fond of gadwalls. It was good to see a raft of a couple of dozen tufties keeping some coots and gadwall company a bit further along.

The café was closed so I couldn't have the cup of tea I promised myself. The feeders were very busy, fifteen or sixteen long-tailed tits crowded out the blue tits and great tits and, unusually, stayed for over quarter of an hour. I had no joy with willow tits today, though. I was joined by a chap who got talking and we discussed parakeets, woodcock, Cetti's warblers and lesser redpolls. 

It was dusk when I walked through Sale Ees and a couple of hundred jackdaws were coming in to roost amidst a cacophony of chaks and chaws. About a hundred were settling in the trees on Chorlton Golf Course on the other side of the river. As I walked through Hardy Farm into Chorlton to get my bus I could compare and contrast the songs of a mistle thrush over by the brook with a song thrush on the golf course.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a dreary afternoon.

Hightown

Sketch map: Hightown from the railway station to Hightown Dunes

The Sefton coast has some excellent sites for wader watching. The mouth of the river Alt at Hightown is very accessible and can be very rewarding even on a brief visit. 

There are regular Merseyrail trains on the Northern Line through Hightown. It's about a ten minute walk from the station to the sailing club and the entrance to Hightown Dunes: walk down Alt Road, turn left onto School Road, walk down and cross over onto Village Way then turn left and walk down Thornbeck Avenue, the sailing club's just after the play area. The 206 bus runs from the station to the sailing club once an hour but to be honest you might as well walk it. (The 206 is a useful route for getting about the rural bits between Hightown and Crosby. And you can get it and change at Great Crosby for the 133 bus to Lunt Meadows if you're making a day of it.)

Looking North from the sailing club 

The benches on the little raised area behind the sailing clubhouse give excellent views of the estuary. It's well worth spending a while sat down having a look round. The river's only small and it meanders right to left between lightly rolling mud banks. At low tide there's an expanse of low mud beyond. To the North there's the shooting range for Altcar Training Camp, to the South the path takes you through Hightown Dunes down to Crosby Beach. The sailing club slipway goes down to a tiny jetty onto the mud which gives you a chance to look for any ducks or waders hidden by the near riverbank.

Looking South from the sailing club

The main attractions are the waders and seabirds, there's usually something about whatever time of year you visit. In late Summer the gulls are joined by hundreds of Sandwich terns. In Autumn keep an eye out for bar-tailed godwits and grey plovers and there's the possibility of a curlew sandpiper, spotted redshank or even little stint. In Spring you'll catch passage migrants such as wheatears or you might strike lucky with a passing little gull.

Sandwich terns 

The walk down the dunes to Crosby Beach is about a mile and a half and can be particularly productive on a late Spring day. It's a nice walk any time if the weather's not misbehaving.

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck

It was a dreich day so I decided to toddle over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of the mandarin ducks in the rain. It turned out that the light was so bad it was a struggle to coax up a shutter speed that wouldn't leave the birds in a blur of motion. In the end the mandarin ducks kept still enough long enough for me to get away with a one-thirtieth of a second exposure time. The same couldn't be said about the flock of thirty-odd siskins in the drowned alders by the garden centre or the treecreeper by the path on Keg Wood.

Mallard and mandarins

River Etherow 

The river was in full spate, the usual white goose's usual rock was underwater so she had to sit on the riverbank downstream. I had no joy finding any dippers or grey wagtails downstream of the weir. I had more luck just upstream: a couple were bouncing round the tree roots on the riverbank opposite the little pier behind the shack.

Keg Wood 

Keg Wood wasn't busy in any sense of the word though it was good so see almost the full range of the usual woodland suspects (only missing goldcrest and chiffchaff). On the way back a sparrowhawk flew by escorted by a carrion crow until it disappeared into Ernocroft Wood.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin ducks
There was a lot of head-bobbing courtship display going on

Mandarin ducks

Pennington Flash

Tufted ducks, goosanders and black-headed gulls

Today's the only day this week when the trains aren't on strike so I was tempted to make the most of it. Then I remembered the usual start of the year shitshow and decided against. (Ironically, our local trains ran as scheduled for once.) I didn't want to waste a sunny Bank Holiday Monday, and didn't fancy getting embroiled on the Mersey Valley so I headed off for Pennington Flash. The sunny day I didn't want to waste lasted as far as the bus stop round the corner. Luckily, the 126 was the best part of half an hour late leaving the Trafford Centre so by the time we got into Leigh the rain had moved South and it was a sunny afternoon.

Walking in from St Helens Road I noticed a large white patch in the trees on the other side of the meadow. A closer look revealed it to be a very contrasty buzzard with clean white underparts and a lot of white to its tail. 

For all that it was quiet and bright there wasn't much about in the trees or hedgerow. I'd just given up on scanning the blackthorns when I noticed a movement on the ground. A shrew scuttled across the path and disappeared into a clump of damp nettles. It's very rare I ever actually see a live shrew, they're usually just furtive movements working their way through grass and leaves.

Tufted duck, coot and black-headed gulls

It was bank holiday busy so the usual suspects on the car park had rations aplenty. I noticed the car park oystercatcher isn't above begging from small children. 

Pennington Flash 

The weather was a lot calmer so the birds were more evenly spread across the flash. A couple of hundred black-headed gulls and a few common gulls crowded around the car park end.  There were relatively low numbers of large gulls, perhaps fifty or so in a dispersed raft over on the sailing club side of the flash. Most were herring gulls or lesser black-backs, a dozen great black-backs were bathing and loafing in the middle of the group. There were plenty of tufted ducks and coots out there, together with a dozen or more pochards and a few goldeneyes. Four goosanders steamed through before flying off towards the far side.

From the Horrocks Hide: cormorants and black-headed gulls

I compared notes with another birdwatcher as we stood by the Horrocks Hide. Neither of us had seen anything out of the ordinary, I put him onto the first-Winter common gulls by the car park and a raft of goldeneyes at the end of the spit, he put me onto a group of great crested grebes I'd missed.

I kept hearing teal as I walked down to the Tom Edmondson Hide but I had no luck finding them. There were plenty of mute swans, shovelers and gadwalls on Pengy's pool.

Herons, Tom Edmondson Hide

There were more gadwalls and shovelers with the coots on the pool at the Tom Edmondson Hide, together with a congregation of herons. A robin came into the hide and fussed around at the window beside me as it found some seed somebody had left behind.

I had another look at the pool opposite when I left the hide. I had more luck this time, the back ends of a few teal had floated out of the edges of the reeds. It was nice to hear the usual Cetti's warbler again, it's been months since I last heard it. It seems to be favouring the reeds at the moment as the bramble patch has been drowned.

At Ramsdales Hide

The scene at Ramsdales was pretty much the same as last week, with the addition of a couple of dabchicks fishing in the corner by the reedbed.

At Pengy's Hide 

I had a brief look at Pengy's, the last of the ice had now gone and the pool was littered with gadwalls, mallards and coots.

Dunnock, Bunting Hide

I spent a while at the Bunting Hide. It was still properly daylight so there were fewer reed buntings about than last week, they started to drift in as I was leaving.

Pennington Flash, walking across the golf course 

I left via the footpath over the golf course and walked through Pennington Hall Park for the bus on St Helens Road. Squadrons of lesser black-backs flew overhead to roost on the flash, a few herring gulls tagging along.

The days are visibly lengthening, there was useful light up to half four today. The last few pigeons wandered round the bus station and a couple of pied wagtails flew in to roost on the roof of the shopping centre. Bank holiday bus times being as they are it was quicker getting the V1 into Manchester and the train home than waiting for the 126 back to the Trafford Centre. Not a bad first outing for the year.

New Year

The temptation on the start of a new birdwatching year is to hurl yourself into one of those Big Birdwatching Count days. I can't think of a much less pleasurable way of going out birdwatching but the temptation is real. Luckily for me there's no public transport round here so a more chilled approach is imposed on me. I'll try not to get giddy tomorrow.

The last bird of 2022 was a singing robin so it's only right and proper that the first bird of 2023 was a singing robin. It was nice to have an early visit from the pair of coal tits though my heart was in my mouth when it looked like they were going to try to bully a squirrel off the sunflower seed feeder. It came as a relief when they flew back over to the dog rose for a spot of courting. The spadgers set up camp in the Pyracantha bush with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing from the main bases in the steamroller's garden and the embankment brambles. Aside from that it was a pretty laid-back start to the birdwatching year on a surprisingly mild and not too damp day.

The school playing field was quiet today, just a maximum of 19 black-headed gulls and three herring gulls. Even the magpies were in single figures. The rest were probably sleeping off the effects of last night's rolling fireworks bombardment.