Cob Kiln Wood

Robin

I didn't want to waste a fitfully sunny afternoon but I didn't feel particularly energetic so I went for a long dawdle round Cob Kiln Wood in the mud.

The walk down from home was punctuated by singing robins, starlings, woodpigeons and blackbirds so it was no great shock to find a couple of goldcrests chasing each other round the bushes by the entrance to the wood. They were part of a very loose mixed tit flock centred round a large family group of long-tailed tits. I stood by the bridge over Ousel Brook and watched them flitting about the alders with a small flock of goldfinches and siskins. I think that most of the alder cones have been robbed of any seed they may have had and the attraction now is overwintering insects. A pair of ring-necked parakeets announced their arrival as they landed at the top of one of the taller alder trees and a trio of goldfinches buzzed their displeasure at being evicted from the twigs they'd been working the past five minutes. The two male blackbirds that had been sparring among the branches didn't pay any attention to any of them.

Ring-necked parakeet

Walking on the path was a tad messy, the more difficult to navigate areas coinciding neatly with the more interesting noises in the hedgerow. A small flock of redwings moved on to the horse paddocks while a pair of bullfinches wheezed dismally in an elder bush. A female great spotted woodpecker silently gave me the once-over, craning her neck around a branch, then slipped her moorings and glided into the taller trees in the birch scrub. A few black-headed gulls passed overhead, as did rather more woodpigeons and magpies.

Cob Kiln Wood

Given the choice between a phenomenally claggy walk around the clearing or a phenomenally claggy walk through the clearing I opted for the latter because there's more room to stray from the path and you can wipe your boots walking through the oak leaves trapped in the clumps of comfrey. 

Cob Kiln Wood 

A family of long-tailed tits backlit bouncing through the trees were fringed with gold and I dearly wished one of them would stay still long enough for a photo. Two song thrushes had a singing contest, only stopping to shift a couple of branches along as I walked by. I kept an eye out for any birds of prey overhead but what wasn't crows, magpies or woodpigeons were lesser black-backs flying to roost.

Cob Kiln Wood 

The way out of the clearing was particularly challenging so I didn't bother with the path and followed the footsteps of somebody who had barged his way through the brambles to get to the top of the steps down to Cob Kiln Lane. I tried not to get too distracted by the blue tits and song thrush in the hedgerow by the lane.

Cob Kiln Lane
I had to wait a good five minutes to get a shot without people in it.

Cob Kiln Lane was busy with people walking dogs and toddlers in the late Winter sunshine. The hedgerows were busy with singing wrens and robins and the bashings about of woodpigeons and blackbirds feeding on ivy berries. I looked in vain for any egrets in the horse paddocks and was rewarded with a fox slinking in and out of the bottom of the hedge over on the other side.

I'd had a bit of a walk so I wandered into Urmston then off home, washing my boots in puddles as I went on my way.

Cob Kiln Lane

Gloom

Dinting Viaduct from Dinting Road

The morning kept hinting of better things but my putting my boots on for a walk round the Salford mosses was the cue for an hours-long pour down.

The garden was quiet, the spadgers huddling in the ivies and the blackbirds huddling under the gooseberry bush with the squirrels. The school playing field was even quieter: rather than encouraging the usual influx of gulls the rain seemed to have driven them away.

I had the fidgets. I noticed a report that a mealy redpoll was in a flock of lesser redpolls visiting gardens ten minutes' walk away from Hadfield Station so I decided to give it a go, either species would be a year tick and I can get there with my monthly travel card. I purposely left the bins and camera at home, I'm very uncomfortable pointing either at people's houses.

The birdlife along the line between Piccadilly and Hadfield was pretty quiet. Woodpigeons sat hunched in trackside trees, magpies and blackbirds sat in treetops and once we passed Godley pairs of jackdaws sitting on rooftops became a commonplace.

From Hadfield Station I walked down Newshaw Lane towards the housing estate where the redpolls had been reported. Jackdaws and pigeons sat on rooftops in the pouring rain, starlings and song thrushes sang in the trees. Passing the school jackdaws started accumulating to roost and robins sang in gardens. Walking round I noticed that most of the front gardens had bird feeders, which was encouraging. In the end the only finches I could find were a couple of goldfinches high in a treetops.

Brookfield Playground

It was apparent I wasn't going to strike lucky, there wasn't anything like a flock of any kind of small birds to be seen. This is no great surprise, if I can't guarantee seeing the two dozen house sparrows that visit my back garden which I know intimately it's a bit of a punt to look for redpolls in an unfamiliar setting. But it's worth a go.

I walked down Dinting Road to Dinting Station. Blue tits, great tits and robins bounced about in the birch scrub by the road, blackbirds rummaged in the undergrowth and song thrushes and a mistle thrush sang from treetops.

I struck lucky and arrived at the station just as the train pulled in. I was glad to get out of the rain but it had been a nice little toddle.

Rochdale

I'd met a friend for lunch. On the way back in the wind and sleet I looked up at the Town Hall tower in the hopes that the peregrines are back but couldn't see any sign. A quick look at the river this time of year is sometimes lucky for a heron, grey wagtail or even a dipper but it was running too high for them. I was just thinking that when an electric blue bolt shot by and zipped under the bridge out of sight. I've never seen a kingfisher on this stretch before.

Wirral

Little egret, Leasowe Lighthouse

It was going to be the last day before the onset of yellow snow so I thought I'd try and make the best of it and headed over for the first visit to the Wirral of the year, a lot later than usual (where does the time go?)

Kestrel, Kerr's Field

I got off the train at Moreton and walked down to Kerr's Field. It was a hazily sunny day and surprisingly mild for February, just right for a walk. Three buzzards flew low over the new housing estate where the broken biscuit factory used to be and a male kestrel sat in the top of one of the trees, I saw his mate as the train was pulling into the station.

The Birkett, Kerr's Field

There's been a lot of hacking back of the hedgerow at the entrance to Kerr's Field which was a bit disorientating at first. Robins and a song thrush sang in the hedgerows by the paddocks. The Birkett was quite high, which gave a couple of mallards and a few moorhens something to paddle in.

Oystercatchers, Kerr's Field

The paddocks further along were awash. One was busy with oystercatchers, woodpigeons and redshanks, the one at the end had a couple of dozen shovelers sleeping in the company of a dozen teal. It struck me that in a month or so's time I'll be chasing after Spring migrants in here.

Shovelers and teal, Kerr's Field

Looking down the revetment towards New Brighton

I walked up and joined the revetment. The tide had turned a while back and was in full ebb now. The beach was dotted with groups of oystercatchers, herring gulls and black-headed gulls and there was an abundance of redshanks scattered about liberally. Way out there was a handful of curlews on the mud and perhaps a dozen cormorants on the tideline. Halfway out to the wind farm a flock of nearly a hundred common scoters rose and flew out into the bay with the falling tide.

Herring gull, Leasowe Lighthouse

It was a nice lunchtime so it was busy with people, dogs and cyclists but not oppressively so. I stopped to try and identify a wader rummaging at the base of the revetment, it obligingly flew out into the open so I could add greenshank to the year list. A few little egrets were shrimping in the pools at the base of the revetment, one of them catching a couple of gobies as a chaser. A flock of light-bellied Brent geese flew by and wheeled out towards the tideline sounding like nothing so much as a venerable Brussels terrier contentedly rummaging round an old compost heap.

Light-bellied brent geese, Leasowe Lighthouse

Redshanks, black-headed gulls, little egret and lesser black-back, Meols

As always the groyne marked a change. In this case, as well as starting to see shelducks and knots on the mud the wind, though still light, had a cutting Wintry edge to it.

Turnstone, Meols

Knot, Meols

There weren't a lot of knots, a few dozen at most, all in groups of less than half a dozen. A couple of turnstones rummaged around the base of the the revetment, they were notably absent on the Leasowe side of the groyne where the base had been pretty comprehensively scoured by recent storms.

Redshank, Meols

The further I walked along Meols Parade the thinner the birdlife on the beach. By the time I got to the lifeboat station there were just occasional redshanks nearby with a few pairs of shelducks way out on the mud. I'd hoped to find some ringed plovers but no joy. A pied wagtail and a meadow pipit were thin pickings.

I decided to call it quits and headed over to Manor Road for the train home. I'd had a good walk, it had been a good day.

St Helens and Pennington Flash

Tufted duck and ring-necked duck, Taylor Park

A few nights' suboptimal sleep was making itself known so I scaled back the ambitions for the day. A drake ring-necked duck had been reported in a park in St Helens, I don't know St Helens particularly well so it seemed like an opportunity for a gentle toddle.

I got the train to Warrington, the bus to St Helens and the Liverpool bus out to Taylor Park to save my legs. I walked up Dunriding Road (no, really) and walked down Moxon Street into the park.

Tufted duck, Taylor Park

The lake is just by this entrance, a typical urban park lake with a path round the outside and a disused pavilion at one side, just like hundreds of others. In my, limited, experience ring-necked ducks visit these surprisingly often. I looked around. Coot, check… mallard, check… Canada geese, check… tufties, check… mute swans, check… small knot of blokes with binoculars at the corner fifty yards away, check.

Black-headed gulls, tufted duck and ring-necked duck, Taylor Park

The ring-necked duck was a bonny bird, never more than twenty feet away from the path and keeping close to a group of tufted ducks but never quite being part of the crowd. It was also trying to keep out of the way of a rather excitable bunch of black-headed gulls that had decided that tiny tots' going to feed the ducks meant them really and even a mute swan couldn't barge its way through 

Black-headed gull, Taylor Park

Ring-necked duck, Taylor Park

Ring-necked duck, Taylor Park

Ring-necked duck, Taylor Park

It's nice to see a drake ring-necked duck this close up. The plain pale grey underside turns out to be very finely vermiculated pale grey and white and if you're lucky you actually get to see the ring at the base of its neck. Today I got lucky, it wasn't a conspicuous ring by any means but it was there, as though the bird had recently had an elastic band around its neck. Why anyone chose that as the field marking to name it by is beyond me. The strongly patterned bill jumped out a mile even on a dull grey day that rendered most of my photographs monochrome.

Taylor Park 

I had a wander round the park, the robins and song thrushes singing in the trees while mixed tit flocks and chaffinches bounced their way through them. There was a big flock of pigeons on the disused pavilion, the sound of their claws on the slates of the roof being a suitable soundtrack for any creepy movie.

I got back to St Helens bus station and noticed that the 34 to Leigh was due in a couple of minutes so, on a whim, I got it and headed for a look at the gull roost at Pennington Flash.

Blackthorn blossom, Pennington Flash

I decided to give the muddy track to the car park a miss, taking the side path that leads to the South bank of the flash. Robins and song thrushes sang and a mixed tit flock rather noisily settled into the brambles for the night.

Pennington Flash 

The gull roost was well underway on the flash, with hundreds of herring gulls and black-headed gulls. There were a lot fewer lesser black-backs and handfuls of common gulls and great black-backs. This time of year most anything could be passing through and spending the night in the roost so I found a seat and spent a while scanning the rafts of large gulls. In this light some of the herring gulls, especially a few dark-headed looking birds that were big and chunky enough to be Scandinavian (argentatus) herring gulls, looked almost as dark as the common gulls. Some of the others looked very pale and a couple of times I got my hopes up for an Iceland gull then saw black tips to the wings as they swung round.

Mostly herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs and a goldeneye, Pennington Flash

Some of the black-headed gulls already had dark heads, many were piebald in moult. A distant black head in the crowd almost got dismissed as another black-headed gull until the herring gull in front of it moved out of the way so I could see my first Mediterranean gull of the year properly. Some of the other black heads in the crowd were goldeneyes, they were bobbing up and down like corks on the edges of the rafts of gulls. There was something different about one of gulls passing through with a crowd of black-headed gulls then I realised its small size wasn't due to perspective and it had dark underwings. It was flying very purposefully for a little gull, usually they dance in the air like butterflies but this one definitely had a sense of someplace to go.

I walked round to the car park where a crowd of mallards, Canada geese and black-headed gulls were helping a lady lighten her bag of breadcrumbs. Just offshore three male pochards bobbed up and down on the waves. A few dozen tufted ducks drifted about in small groups and a couple of great crested grebes cruised midwater. 

From Ramsdales Hide

The hides had been locked up so I had a bit of a wander and looked at the pools as best could. A couple of hundred lapwings left the spit at the Horrocks Hide, leaving behind a couple of dozen cormorants, a couple of herons, a little egret and the car park oystercatcher.

The coots, mute swans and tufted ducks were busy on Pengy's pool but I couldn't see any gadwalls or shovelers. A few teal hung about at Tom Edmondson's and a few more at Ramsdales where there were also a couple of redhead goosanders and a pair of willow tits.

Walking back I could compare and contrast the songs of the song thrushes in the trees by the flash and the mistle thrush in one of the trees on the golf course. I crossed the golf course and passed through Leigh Sports Village for the bus in to Leigh and the 126 to the Trafford Centre, for once making the connection with the 25 back home. I'd done a bit more than planned with the day and was ready for a kip.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Herring gull, Lostock School

It's been an idle few days. I was thwarted by trains on Friday, decided I didn't want more unscheduled walks home from Urmston and took the hint and got the shopping done. I've no excuse for yesterday save it was a bit dreich out there. Today's excuse is that I didn't get to sleep until after 08:30am. Which gave me the opportunity to hear my first dawn chorus of the year, starting with the robin singing in the blue light and finishing with the woodpigeons in the sycamores.

The garden birds evidently thought that this weekend was the Big Garden Birdwatch, they've been very self-effacing this past couple of days. Most unlike the crowds of earlier in the week. The spadgers seem to be operating as one, splintered, group coming into the garden in twos and threes and steadily accumulating before moving off in larger groups. The older silver-cheeked males are generally accompanied by a couple of very dark iron grey males of a similar vintage, the younger silver cheeks usually have a couple of females in tow, and there are a couple of groups that are mostly females with a few of last year's males. Some of those females are notable for having bright white undertails and bellies.

It's been a windy day and that's brought the gulls out in force on the school playing field. A few of the black-headed gulls did a spot of worm dancing but most of them, and all the large gulls, just loafed. I can't remember seeing this many herring gulls on here before, roughly equal numbers of adults and first-Winter birds with a handful of seconds, third and fourth Winters.

• Black-headed gull 29
• Carrion crow 1
• Common gull 2
• Feral pigeon 1
• Herring gull 49
• Jackdaw 9
• Lesser black-back 5
• Magpie 7
• Rook 6
• Starling 1
• Woodpigeon 1 

Mersey Valley

Mallard, Stretford Ees

I had errands to do so it was mid-afternoon before I went for a walk. I was already near Stretford Marina so I walked down the canal into Stretford Ees and walked through to Sale Water Park.

Bridgewater Canal, Stretford 

The canal was fairly quiet, woodpigeons feeding in the gardens on the other side and just a moorhen on the water. The pigeons — fifty-four of them — were already gathering in the rafters under Edge Lane and black-headed gulls drifted overhead to roost. A pair of Canada geese were grazing on a patch of grass by the towpath. Approaching them the goose looked a lot smaller than the gander but as I got closer I realised it was a trick of perspective and as I passed them I could see she was only a couple of inches the smaller. For some reason I find I'm particularly susceptible to this sort of error with geese which is why, whenever I look at a crowd of geese and find one that's "not quite," I look twice then pan away to focus on something else and come back to see if the goose still looks different. A flock of a couple of dozen goldfinches twittered in the treetops by the houseboats and a couple of the males sang sporadically, warming up for the season.

Canada geese, Stretford

I dropped down onto Hawthorn Lane and walked past the cemetery where a mixed tit flock fussed its way through the hedgerow. There wasn't much on the field at Turn Moss that wasn't magpie or common gull so I cut through the fence onto Stretford Ees.

A mixed flock of wrens, blue tits and long-tailed tits fidgeted in the hawthorns by the pool, the great tits were calling in the thicket below the rise. In many ways this pool baffles me but it feeds Kickety Brook, gives the mallards somewhere to have a kip and in a few months will be fizzing with dragonflies.

River Mersey, Stretford 

Walking down the river the screeching of jays on the Sale side and parakeets on the Stretford side almost drowned out the calls of jackdaws heading to roost. The river was significantly lower than last time I saw it but still running fast.

A few dozen black-headed gulls loafed on the lake of Sale Water Park with a few lesser black-backs, common gulls, coots and gadwall. More gadwall hugged the banks. A herd of swans were feeding over by the water sports centre and half a dozen Canada geese cruised by in formation. Out in the middle of the lake a couple of cormorants were doing some very active fishing and the great crested grebe with the bad wing was drifting over towards to reedbeds on this side. 

Goosander, Sale Water Park

A pair of goosanders swam through the willows on the lake by Broad Ees Dole, a dozen coots being busy with somethings or other among the roots. The water was high on Broad Ees Dole, covering the islands. Half a dozen mallards rested on top of the shallows with a heron.

Broad Ees Dole 

Walking along Barrow Brook 

A song thrush was belting out its song from the hawthorn tree as I joined the path along Barrow Brook and a willow tit told me to move along, son. As I walked along a great spotted woodpecker made a cameo appearance before flying off towards the big trees by Jackson's Boat. By the sound of it the parakeets were already in there. I cut through the woodland as I headed for the tram stop, the soundscape being the calls of great tits and magpies and the whistling of teal settling in for the evening amongst the drowned willows.

As I stood at the bus stop at Barlow Moor Road my appreciation of a very fine sunset was distracted by a taxi driver choosing to cut up the bus I was waiting for as it approached the stop. The space the taxi driver was cutting into was non-existent and I spent a couple of minutes watching the exchange of pleasantries while the passengers at the front made rude gestures before wandering off for the bus into Urmston and a walk home. I suspect I'm jinxed.