Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

For a change it was a grey start to the day. I struggled to get started or even decide what I was doing with the day so I had breakfast and a pot of tea and walked round to get the 25 to the Trafford Centre to play bus station bingo. And missed it.

Sparrowhawk,, Lostock Park 

I walked through the park to get the 250 to the Trafford Centre. The difference a day makes! There was a bit of drama as a blackbird wriggled out of the clutches of a female sparrowhawk and darted into the depths of a holly bush.

• Black-headed gull 3
• Blackbird 6
• Blue tit 2
• Carrion crow 1
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 6
• Great tit 1
• Herring gull 3
• House sparrow 2
• Lesser black-back 1
• Long-tailed tit 9
• Magpie 7
• Redwing 1
• Robin 1
• Sparrowhawk 1
• Woodpigeon 5

The next bus out was the 20 to Bolton. I was spoilt for choice. I could get off at Worsley and do that walk by Boothstown to Astley that I've not got round to this year. Or have a wander through Worsley Woods… or Blackleach… or Cutacre… I decided to get off at Walkden, walk up to Blackleach Country Park, over through to Kearsley, get the bus to Farnworth and go and have a nosy round Moses Gate Country Park. A couple of medium-sized walks would get the knees mobile again after a lazy few days. I'd got so that I was walking like Long John Silver.

Great crested grebe, Blackleach Country Park 

It's a short walk up the road to Blackleach Country Park from Walkden town centre. It was a cool and breezy day and every so often the sun threatened to emerge from behind the clouds. A small flock of goldfinches and a few blue tits were fussing around in the hedgerow by the car park. I stepped aside to allow a working party of volunteers through a gate. One stopped. "Don't I know you?" he asked. His face looked familiar but I might as easily as seen him in a bus as anywhere else (I have the same problem with relatives at Christmas). I gave him name, rank and number and we bade each other good day.

Mute cygnet, Blackleach Country Park 

The lake was busy with birds, like tending to linger with like. A couple of herds of mute swans cruised about. Likewise handfuls of shovelers, tufted ducks and gadwalls and a raft of Canada geese. Mallards hugged the sides of the lake, coots were everywhere, and there was just the one great crested grebe that I could see. Black-headed gulls flew about or called noisily from the nesting rafts and a couple of lesser black-backs loafed midwater.

Mallard, Blackleach Country Park 

Mallards, Blackleach Country Park 

Coot, Blackleach Country Park 

Black-headed gulls, Blackleach Country Park 

The woods were fairly quiet, most of the small bird noises being provided by the twigs rattling against each other in the breeze. Blackbirds and robins rummaged about by the paths and wrens sang from the undergrowth. A mixed tit flock seemed to consist entirely of blue tits, coal tits and nuthatches. 

Blackleach Country Park 

Whenever I've walked up through the woods along Moss Road towards the motorway it's been to the backdrop of the noise of heavy plant machinery. It seems there's been some thinning out of the trees and scrub on the edge of the country park for today I could see the waste management works that makes the noise. A little further along a kestrel hovered over the field by the motorway.

Blackleach Country Park 

I bobbed over the motorway into Kearsley and walked round to the Melville Street bus stop for the 22 to Farnworth Library. It's only a mile and I could have walked it but it's a dreary main road trudge and I only had five minutes to wait for the bus.

I crossed the road to the library then walked down Rawson Road, under the expressway and into Moses Gate Country Park. I turned onto the path that sweeps down the steep hill down to the main lake. As I was coming over I'd seen that a first-Winter Caspian gull had been seen here earlier in the day. Redwings and blackbirds skittered about the trees and a great spotted woodpecker took exception to me as I passed.

Moses Gate Country Park 

Moses Gate Country Park 

I groaned as I approached the lake: a flock of large gulls rose and circled over the lake before drifting over towards Bolton town centre. It was a mixture of herring gulls and lesser black-backs but one bird stood out amongst the wheeling mass. It was mostly in silhouette against a bright sky but the long wings, heavy shoulders, round head and big blob of an end to its beak shouted yellow-legged gull so even if I'd missed the Caspian gull I had me a consolation prize.

Herring gulls and common gulls, Moses Gate Country Park 

Herring gulls, Moses Gate Country Park 

There were a lot of black-headed gulls about at this end of the lake with a few herring gulls, all of them subadults, and a few common gulls. Nearly all the large gulls were over by the car park, a mixture of lesser black-backs and herring gulls in a bewildering range of plumages.

Moses Gate Country Park 

The mute swans and Canada geese all headed that way, somebody must have brought in some food. The mallards were busy making baby mallards, shovelers cruised about in groups of three or four and coots squabbled with each other at every opportunity.

As I approached the car park I bumped into another birdwatcher who immediately put me onto the Caspian gull (thanks Dennis). Once spotted it stuck out a mile, a long-necked, long-winged, long-billed and small-headed gull. And ghostly pale. The head looked white from a distance, close to it was very pale beige-grey, nearly white on the face, with dark brown streaks on its neck. The upperparts were mottled brown but more blurred and softer than the herring gulls and lesser black-backs, and significantly paler. Compared to it the herring gulls and even the lesser black-backs were more rectangular birds. I've only seen a handful of Caspian gulls before and they've all looked bigger than the herring gulls they were with. This bird was quite small, about the same size as a herring gull but slimmer. I'll have to remember to forget the size and concentrate on the structure next time I'm searching for a possible Caspian gull.

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

It wasn't shy in coming closer and just as interested in any free food going as the other gulls so I got the chance to look at it in detail and in different angles of light. Even with the light behind it it was a pale-looking gull.

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

Mute swans and First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

Mute swans and First-Winter Caspian gull (left), Moses Gate Country Park 

Mute swans and First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter herring gull and first-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull and first-Winter lesser black-back, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

First-Winter Caspian gull, Moses Gate Country Park 

I thanked Dennis again and made my way through the car park to the river Croall. It was probably getting on a bit in the day to hope for wagtails but I might find goosanders on the river. But not today.

River Croall 

Along the Kingfisher Trail

I followed the path up to the Kingfisher Trail which follows the Croall down to where it joins the Irwell at Nob End. The small birds and woodpigeons were settling down to roost and it was only the magpies and carrion crows still noisy and active in the trees. 

Nob End 

It's a nice walk through a post-industrial landscape (as are Blackleach and Moses Gate country parks). Nob End is a Site of Special Scientific Interest as the plant life includes many only found on calcareous soil, a legacy of the alkaline residue of the 18th and 19th century chemical works producing sulphuric acid and washing soda. Not that they're much in evidence in the half-light of a late afternoon in December.

Prestolee Road and Nob End

I joined Prestolee Road and crossed the Irwell by the aqueduct carrying the relict Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal into Prestolee where I expected to find the bus stop for the 512 into Bury. I couldn't even find the poles any bus stop might have been if somebody had pinched the signs. So I walked into Kearsley and got the bus there. I didn't have the legs to walk down for the 22 back to the Trafford Centre, which would have got me home a lot quicker. The bus crossed back over the Irwell and did its circuit round Prestolee before crossing back over the bridge and on its way. As we meandered round the bus announcements reeled off a series or bus stops and not a one could I see from the window. Island life is always different.

Local patch

Barton Clough 

The morning started bright and breezy but soon clouded over, which has been the pattern this past couple of weeks around the storm. A couple of dozen house sparrows stormed the feeders first thing and decided to linger all day. The hoped-for gull bonanza across the road was seriously underwhelming — twelve black-headed gulls, two lesser black-backs and a common gull and they'd all disappeared before the kids went back in to classes after lunch.

I didn't really feel like doing much and had some Christmas shopping to do so I limited today's efforts to a walk around the local patch. Most of the small birds would probably still be keeping undercover whatever cover was available so I was expecting it to be dead quiet. It was even quieter than that.

• Blackbird 2
• Carrion crow 1
• Goldfinch 1
• Herring gull 2
• House sparrow 7
• Lesser black-back 5 
• Magpie 7
• Starlings 16
• Woodpigeon 6

The absence of birds that rely on there being some undergrowth about is a worry, I can't imagine someone won't be taking to the nettles and bramble patches with a strimmer again this Winter. I notice on the old cornfield that the goldenrods have taken over the areas where the bramble patches were strimmed last year. Their tiny seeds aren't especially attractive even to goldfinches and are a poor substitute for cover and blackberry pips.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Woodpigeon

Hatches were battened over Saturday but despite other parts of the country getting a hammering we just had a very windy day and windier night. Today would ordinarily have felt like a very windy day but paled in comparison. 

The sparrows have been camped out in the garden all weekend, making serious inroads on the fat feeders. The starlings had emptied the mealworm feeder by lunchtime yesterday, their messy feeding providing a bonanza for the dunnocks, blackbirds and spadgers feeding on the ground underneath. Today the main drama has involved the fat feeder near the washhouse, the bulk and buffeting of the woodpigeons trumping the beaks and chattering of the magpies. Then the woodpigeons spent so much time fighting over it between themselves the spadgers took over and weren't for being moved, numbers trumping bulk.

Spadgers

Whenever there's a storm there's a reasonable hope that some interesting gulls might be blown in and spend a bit of time on the school field, or at least the hopes of a crowd scene. Not here this weekend, just the usual dozen or so black-headed gulls and the only large gull was a chunky second-Winter herring gull yesterday afternoon. Black-headed gull numbers haven't really recovered from the avian flu outbreak last year.

I did a lightning shop for cat food (I entertained the idea of braving the December Sunday shopping crowds to get supplies in for next week for all of ten seconds). Every time I go to the Trafford Retail Park lately I see a skein or two of pink-footed geese flying overhead. Today it was twenty-nine geese flying South which suggests it wasn't one of the usual movements between the local mosslands.

It's billed to be a calm week to come so I'll have no excuse for sitting at home drinking too much tea and annoying the cat 

The calm…

House sparrow, Stretford

Met Office storm warning alerts were pinging on my 'phone every five minutes so I thought it might be prudent not to set off for a walk. As it happened it was a perfectly calm mild grey day and I could have done so anyway.

The starlings have been a notable omission from the garden this Autumn. Today a dozen of them discovered the mealworms I put in the feeder yesterday. Even the squirrels and magpies couldn't get their noses in until they'd moved on. This gave the spadgers the opportunity to monopolise the fat feeders all morning, I'd refilled them, too.

Starlings, Stretford
Starlings in Winter plumage in a shady corner on a gloomy day. I might as well be taking pictures of black cats in coal cellars.

I got a fit of the fidgets so I thought I'd do a reconnaissance mission. There are a few walks in the Hayfield area in High Peak that look interesting but I wasn't convinced of the bus connections so I thought I'd do a dummy run.

As the train pulled into the station at Humphrey Park Station a goldcrest bustled out of the conifer by the platform, singing loudly, not something you find yourself writing very often. It was so loud I thought at first it was a robin tuning up.

I got the train to Glossop then walked round the corner for the 61 bus to Buxton which stops at Hayfield Bus Station. It runs every half hour and is a picturesque ride.

Hayfield Bus Station is a turning circle with a public toilet. I had twelve minutes to wait for the 358 to Stockport, an hourly service. I got a bit distracted by the mixed tit flock in the trees by the bus stop and the greenfinches over by the houses before I started having a look round. 

Four local walks

There's a lot of walking to be had round these parts, not all of it hillwalking but that's the main attraction. There were a couple of information boards on the wall, one showing four of the local long walks up tops. The knees made disapproving noises while I was looking at them. I fancy some of the hillwalking round here but not now and nothing too ambitious, late Spring and Autumn generally provide the best light and weather and time to enjoy them.

Bluebell Wood local nature reserve

The knees approved much more of the Bluebell Wood nature reserve's being wheelchair-friendly. This reserve's part of the Sett Valley Trail. I wondered how far that was then noticed the sign at the end of the car park. I think this might be one of my walks in the new year.

Sett Valley Trail 

I wandered back over to where the bus was waiting at the stop. It's a nice easy run to Stockport via New Mills and Marple and I just had five minutes to wait for the 25 bus back home.

So getting to Hayfield from Glossop or Stockport is a doddle and I've added to the list of walks to be had for next year.

Chelford

Coal tit, Lapwing Lane 

It was a cold and frosty morning and I was curious to see what I was going to do with it. Yet again the promise of sunshine early in the morning was replaced by a mild eternal twilight. It felt like goose weather so I headed for Chelford to see if I could find any of the white-fronted geese on Acre Nook Quarry.

Chelford, Alderney Edge in the distance 

Chelford was damp although it wasn't actually raining. A buzzard sitting in a tree by Knutsford Road supervised the jackdaws, carrion crows and woodpigeons foraging in the muddy fields. The light was so God-awful I gave up on trying to get a picture of it.

Sweet chestnuts, even the squirrels couldn't be bothered with them.

Holmes Chapel Road was busy with jackdaws and black-headed gulls and a small flock of redwings muttered its way through the roadside sweet chestnuts.

The hedgerows of Lapwing Lane were fizzing with titmice, the tutting of long-tailed tits following me all the way down. A few chaffinches showed well in the trees and hawthorns, a flock of tree sparrows flitted along the hedgerows like shadows.

Lapwing Lane 

Acre Nook Quarry 

The gate at the end of Lapwing Lane overlooking Acre Nook Quarry has been replaced by a fence and hawthorn saplings. There's a new gate a little way down where it won't upset the householders at the end, the view's not so good but there's still a view.

The coots and black-headed gulls were easily seen and heard, the teal were heard but a beggar to find, I couldn't find where the greylags were calling from. Mallards and tufted ducks bobbed by the sides, a few great crested grebes cruised midwater with a raft of lesser black-backs and a few cormorants hung their wings out to dry. 

Way over on the far bank four Canada geese hugged the bank but I wasn't seeing any potential white-fronts. Then I looked a bit further along and I could see two grey geese grazing high on the bank. I identified them by a process of elimination. They didn't have the heavy rectangular look of greylags and seemed to have longer wings and they were way too big to be tundra bean geese let alone pink-feet. It was vanishingly unlikely they'd be taiga bean geese but it still came as a relief when one raised its head and looked backwards and I could see a white flash at the base of its beak. It wouldn't be a white-front and a taiga, that would be too unlikely for words, so white-fronts they were. But which ones? At that distance in this light the bill colour was impossible. Going by the generally grey-brown look of the birds, with no dark oily brown overtones, I concluded they were European ("Russian") white-fronted geese. Fifteen of them had been reported earlier this morning, I started to look for the others as the weather closed it and it started to rain. The visibility dropped markedly so I gave it up as a bad job. I'd seen two of them anyway.

The Mosses

I headed for The Mosses, as much for the shelter as the walk, and the rain stopped as quickly as it started. Every stand of silver birches had blue tits and long-tailed tits bouncing round at the end of twigs. A couple of goldcrests added a bit of variety to one flock. Robins, wrens and blackbirds rummaged about in the undergrowth with the squirrels while carrion crows and woodpigeons clattered about in the oak trees.

The Mosses

Lapwing Hall Pool 

The visibility had improved but still wasn't good. About a hundred wigeon were scattered across Lapwing Hall Pool in groups of half a dozen or so. A raft of about a hundred noisy black-headed gulls stuck together. By the banks near The Mosses dabchicks and coots rummaged about while wigeons and mallards bathed and half a dozen goosanders cruised about apparently aimlessly. The great crested grebes out in the middle looked like shadows in the poor light. By the time I had walked round it was becoming properly twilight and the blackbirds and redwings were settling to roost in the brambles.

Lapwing Hall Pool 

The twilit walk back to the station was unremarkable save for how busy Holmes Chapel Road gets at four o'clock. Although it was still mild the damp was stiffening the joints. The Met Office is promising a lousy day tomorrow, I'll make a lazy day of it.

Marbury and Northwich

Kingfisher, Budworth Mere 

After falling asleep over a tin of beans I got twelve hours' more or less uninterrupted sleep and woke up as stiff as a board but more compos mentis than i have been this past week. I decided I'd walk the stiffness out with a stroll across Marbury Country Park and into Northwich.

The train is scheduled to get into Warrington just as the Northwich bus leaves the station which is annoying but moot as the train's always been delayed ten minutes by late-running express trains. It worked in my favour, though as the next bus to Northwich was the Cat 9a which stops at the entrance to Marbury Country Park. There's not a right lot to do in Warrington if you've fifty minutes to spare (I want to give the exhibition of awful album covers at the Art Gallery a good going-over) so I walked down to Stockton Heath and got the bus there. There were plenty of black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs sitting on lampposts but only a moorhen on the Mersey and a coot on the Ship Canal.

Walking past Marbury Nurseries 

It's only half an hour on the bus to Marbury Country Park, the 9a's a straight run most of its length save a short detour to service Antrobus. I got off the bus and had a quick look over the road at Kennel Wood where the treetops were picked out with woodpigeons then walked into the country park following the path through the nursery car park then alongside the wall and on to the arboretum, for no other reason than I've not gone that way before. In fact it's the first time I've started a walk here instead of ending it and the change in perspective was interesting, and it gave me the chance to look at parts of the park I've skipped by in the past due to lack of time or energy.

Marbury Country Park 

Hawfinches have been being reported by the main car park and one had been reported again this morning so I wandered over to see if I'd have any luck. None whatever. I walked around the car park and the adjoining arboretum a few times but had no luck. There were a couple of big mixed tit flocks with lots of blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits, a few coal tits and goldcrests and some very vocal nuthatches. Great spotted woodpeckers did the rounds of the bare trees. The chaffinches rummaging around in the beech leaves under the trees were nearly all females. But no hawfinches. "Are you hawfinch spotting?" asked a lady dog walker. "I'm hawfinch missing," I admitted. "There were a lot of people here yesterday doing the same thing. I don't know how many had any luck in the end." I'm not surprised. It was busy with dog walkers and picnickers and there was plenty of woodland in which the birds could lose themselves for as long as they wanted. I gave it an hour and moved on.

Walking over to Budworth Mere 

I wandered over to Budworth Mere. It had become a grey and cool lunchtime and it felt greyer and cooler once I got there. The feeders at the hide were busy with titmice, chaffinches and squirrels and a jay kept popping in to top up on peanuts.

Kingfisher, Budworth Mere 

A kingfisher sat in the drowned tree just in front of the hide, spending most of its time lurking in the branches then popping out to do a bit of fishing. It caught at least one minnow in the time I was there.

It's spotted something…

…and caught it, and has to hid behind the branches to spite the photographer.

Small parties of tufted ducks and great crested grebes drifted over the mere. Over on the far side a flock of black-headed gulls jostled for their turn to sit on top of the mooring piles the cormorants hadn't already taken. A pair of mute swans grazed at the water side with a few dozen coots and a dozen or so rather vocal curlews.

Budworth Mere 

As I walked down the path alongside the mere I bumped into small groups of tufted ducks and mallards mooching in the bankside willow roots.

Jay, Marbury Country Park 

At one point I had to wait a couple of minutes while a jay remembered where it had cached a couple of acorns on the path side.

Jay, Marbury Country Park 

Big Wood

I drifted into Big Wood (no, really) which was busy with chaffinches and mixed tit flocks. And randy woodpigeons. A flock of about forty lapwings silently flew low over the trees heading for the Northwich flashes. A couple of redwings I accidentally flushed from a bramble patch as I passed by turned out to be part of a flock of fifty or so of them. There probably wasn't far short that number of blackbirds but they were scattered around with never more than a handful of them at a time. There was a notable absence of buzzards, I usually hear them even if I can't see them round here.

Big Wood 

The light was already starting to fade as I crossed the Trent and Mersey Canal into the Northwich woodlands. A trio of bullfinches — two males and a female — were feeding in the treetops by the bridge. The woods on this side were very much quieter of birds, there were long stretches where I wasn't seeing anything.

Marbury Lane 

Haydn's Hide 

I walked along the canal then joined Marbury Lane and passed Haydn's Pool. I noticed the sign for the hide so I took the short detour and went up the steep and slippery steps with their rickety hand rails and had a look. I won't be bothering again.

The view from Haydn's Hide 

By Neumann's Flash 

A little further on I took the path to Neumann's Flash. The paths were busy with dogs and their walkers but they were no trouble.

Mallard, Neumann's Flash 

Neumann's Flash 

Mallards, moorhens and Canada geese pottered about by the causeway to the hide on the South side of the flash. Out in midwater was a raft of sixty-something shovelers and a pair of mute swans, behind them a few dozen wigeon and a couple of pairs of gadwall. Beyond them unidentifiable duck-shaped objects lurked in the willows and reed margins. I kept hearing teal but could only find a couple with a group of mallards hunkered in the reeds on one of the little islands on this side of the flash.

Canada goose, Neumann's Flash 
When the photographer doesn't notice twilight creeping up on him.

I wandered down the bund in the gathering gloom then round Ashton's Flash to the exit onto Old Warrington Road. Robins and wrens were having one last song before bedtime and blackbirds chunnered in the hedgerows. 

I decided not to rush and try and get the train to Manchester, getting the Cat 9 back to Warrington instead which in theory gives me a good ten minutes to walk across the road for the direct train home. Warrington's traffic being as it is I jumped ship at the river and walked up to the station and had five minutes' grace for buying my ticket. My bus was still stuck in the long queue trying to get into the bus station as my train arrived.

By Neumann's Flash 

There was a mid-afternoon report of three hawfinches in the trees by the car park. I don't care, I'd had a good day out.

Mosses

Black-headed gulls and starlings, Chat Moss

A weekend spent trying to catch up with some sleep achieved the square root of naff all save a frostiness in the domestic harmony between me and the cat so I set out for a walk to get some exercise and try to clear the brain fog a bit. At one o'clock in the morning the Met Office was promising a damp start to a generally fine if cloudy day but at eight o'clock the forecast was that it would pour down all day which it duly did. I shelved the plans for the day but was reluctant to do anything that put me at the mercy of Northern's usual Monday mayhem so I went for a walk on the Salford mosses.

Irlam Moss 

The Zinnia Close spadgers were reassuringly noisy as I walked down Astley Road. The woodpigeons were back sitting on the telephone lines and jackdaws flew overhead. The usual covey of grey partridges took some finding: they were in their usual field, tucked under the hedge by the houses. There were plenty of blackbirds and robins about in the hedgerows. Approaching the Jack Russell's gate I bumped into the first mixed tit flock of the day, a couple of dozen long-tailed tits and a dozen blue tits. The great tits by the gate seemed to be headed in the opposite direction. A small mixed flock of Winter thrushes, a dozen each of fieldfares and redwings, flew from the hedgerows whenever a lorry drove by and came back immediately it had passed.

The field immediately South of the motorway, by Worsley View, had over a hundred black-headed gulls competing for worm-dancing space with a similar number of starlings and a few dozen lapwings. Over the motorway a similar number of black-headed gulls were outnumbered nearly three to one by the starlings on the turf. It took a while to find the pied wagtails in the damp corner. It took even longer to find any lapwings, a handful were a few fields down. The mixed tit flock by the stables included a pair of goldcrests including a male with a very bright orange crest.

Kestrel, Chat Moss 

There were four kestrels at Four Lanes End: a male on the wires behind the farmhouse, another young-looking bird at the top of a tree over on Twelve Yards Road and two young birds hunting the rough pasture opposite the farmhouse.

There were contractors working around the outside of the reserve at Little Woolden Moss so there wasn't much to see as I walked down Lavender Lane except a few magpies and carrion crows. Ironically, all that work going on concentrated the small birds in the trees near the entrance to the reserve including a few blackbirds, robins and wrens and a fair-sized mixed tit flock including a dozen long-tailed tits. In contrast, the pools were empty with not even the usual gang of carrion crows to be seen.

Little Woolden Moss 

Twelve Yards Road 

I walked back to Lavender Lane and down Twelve Yards Road. A hooded crow had been reported earlier on the stubble field immediately North of the road that always hosts a crowd of crows, rooks and jackdaws. I could see them well enough, also woodpigeons, stock doves and starlings, together with a buzzard hunting for worms, but nothing remotely like a hoodie. The buzzard got fidgety and the corvids close by took flight for a minute, any hoodie in that lot would have stuck out a mile. It also scared up a dozen skylarks that had been feeding in one of the furrows. But no hoodie. I walked down a bit and bumped into a birdwatcher whose body language suggested he'd had no luck either. "I've been here a while," he said, "A peregrine came over about ten minutes ago and had everything up and I hoped I'd see it then but no luck." I commiserated and moved on quickly so's not to further jinx him.

Cutnook Lane 

There was only a very small mixed tit flock on Cutnook Lane: a couple each of great tits and blue tits and a handful of long-tailed tits. The turf fields opposite the stables by the motorway were flooded, three dozen magpies paddled in the damp grass on the rise, three dozen mallards dabbled in the pool by the lane.

Mallards, Chat Moss 

As I got to the motorway bridge a car pulled up by my side. "That hoodie didn't turn up," said the driver.

Cutnook Lane