Salford

Juvenile goosanders

I was going over to friends in Salford to drop off a couple of bags of rowan berries so I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a stroll down the stretch of the Irwell between New Bridge Street and the Adelphi Bridge just past Lower Broughton. It's a surprisingly nice walk and never gets silly busy.

River Irwell

Joining the path by the river there were a few black-headed gulls about and a couple of blackbirds were making a start on the first of the ripe elderberries. Walking down a bit to the first bend I could hear a couple of mallards but couldn't see them for the vegetation on the bank (it was only when I got to the little bridge over to the other side that I saw them). The first goosander of the day — a lone female — had a desultory bit of a fishing before swimming upstream. A chiffchaff called from the elder bushes by the bridge and was answered by another somewhere further down the bank away from any paths.

I carried on down towards Lower Broughton. More black-headed gulls and a couple of dozen mallards safely loafing on the far bank. Then a swallow flew in, spent a couple of minutes hawking for insects over the water then flew off towards the city centre. Shortly afterwards a grey wagtail flew upstream, immediately followed by a kingfisher. I'm still a bit surprised to be finding grey wagtails on these waters, I'm staggered whenever I find a kingfisher here.

There were seventy-odd Canada geese on the stretch by the shopping parade on Lower Broughton Road, together with more mallards and black-headed gulls and a single cormorant. A couple of lesser black-backs flew over but didn't stop. Another chiffchaff, together with a couple of wrens and a robin were in the hedge along the path. Six goosanders loafed on a sandbank in the company of a family of grey wagtails and a shopping trolley.

Heron

A little further on a heron was preening on the bank, stopping only to check what I was doing with the camera and getting back to business once it had been established it was some old bloke taking photos.

Juvenile goosanders, Canada goose and rubber tyre

Another fifteen juvenile goosanders were dozing on the riverbank just before the Adelphi Bridge. It's obviously been a good year for them. And the fish life must be productive to be able to feed these hungry mouths.

Juvenile goosander

Stretford and Chorlton

Stretford Ees, the end of Kickety Brook

I had one of those "Can't be bothered" moods on me so I dragged myself out for a late afternoon stroll around Stretford Ees and Turn Moss.

Stretford Ees was busy with goldfinches and woodpigeons and a willow warbler sang, appropriately enough, from a stand of willows near the end of Kickety Brook. There were reed buntings around but I only saw them when I accidentally flushed them out of the long grass as I walked past. The grass flashed electric blue with common blue damselflies, the only dragonflies out this visit.

Turn Moss was fairly busy with families and sportspeople so I walked down Hawthorn Lane to see if anything was lurking in the hedgerows. There were a few robins and great tits, a nuthatch making a performance out of pecking open an acorn and a chiffchaff working the high branches. I wandered over to the car park on Turn Moss Road where eight ring-necked parakeets were flitting about and disappearing into the treetops screaming the odds.

I crossed over the road to Longford Park but that was far too busy for much birdlife.

I thought I'd have a look if the barriers were still up around Rye Bank Fields as it's been closed off "for surveying work" all year.  It was still closed off, including the paths only known to cats and kids, including the one where you have to walk through the holly bush to find the start of the trail. It turns out that the barriers had been removed at the Firswood end so I had a wander. Turns out that when the developers moved in to start housebuilding the survey found asbestos in the ground. This has put off any further development a while. It also turns out that the open entrance is the result of what one of the locals calls: "Slightly concerted effort." This time of day and year it was fairly quiet: a few woodpigeons and magpies, a jay and a couple of parakeets. I'm glad there's a way in, however unofficial, this is the time of year passage migrants drop in.

Rye Bank Fields
The green line across the picture is Nico Ditch, I'm standing in the Kingdom of York having crossed over from Mercia.

Leighton Moss

Great white egret

A phenomenally quiet couple of hours around Leighton Moss. Given the time of year and the current circumstances this is hardly surprising. The ducks are in moult and sleeping in the shade and the small passerines are quietly going about their business. This time of year the action's all at the Griesdale and Tim Jackson hides and down at the coastal hides as the wader passage starts kicking in for serious and at the moment these hides are still closed to the public. Still, don't look, don't find…

As the train pulled into Silverdale I could see a large flock of black-tailed godwits on the pool by the Eric Morecambe Hide, together with a few lapwings, teal and shelduck. There were a few smaller waders out there which at a guess I'd suggest were redshank but I didn't get the chance to confirm the ID. As I walked through the entrance to Leighton Moss a swallow twittered overhead. That was to be the only hirundine of the visit.

The truth about birdwatching

The feeding station by the picnic area was busy with titmice, chaffinches and people.Mallards slept in pairs in shady places oblivious to visitors.Most of the titmice were great and blue tits, with a couple of coal tits and a marsh tit. A nuthatch was being particularly noisy and a family party of long-tailed tits flitted about through the willows. There were more robins about than last time and their behaviour reminded me that there'll be a generation of small birds here that haven't been used to taking food from strangers.

The views from the sky tower and Lilian's Hide were pretty light on birds. A couple of dozen coot fed close by the reeds; small groups of mallard and gadwall, perhaps a dozen of each all told, dozed on the water and half a dozen teal sat deep in the reeds. A great crested grebe and a family of dabchicks drifted out of the reeds and the last of the black-headed gulls loafed on one of the nesting platforms.

By Lilian's Hide

Taking the path over to the causeway there were plenty of brown hawkers and black darters patrolling the reeds. I kept checking overhead for marsh harriers or even a passing osprey but there were just four lesser black-backs drifting inland.

Walking along the causeway I was having a moan to myself about there being all those thermals and no raptors taking advantage of them when a great white egret flew overhead and headed off towards the reedbeds opposite the Lower Hide.A couple of chiffchaffs calling from the willow trees were the only small birds to be heard or seen. A flock of lapwings flew over towards the salt marsh.

From the screen by the Causeway Hide (which had its capacity eight people in it) I could see another flock of coots by the reeds on the far side. The water was high so there wasn't a lot of space for half a dozen roosting cormorants and an adult great black-back (I could see no sign of a youngster). Another cormorant was sat on a pole and a family of mute swans, including five well-grown cygnets, were out on the far margins near the Lower Hide.  The only ducks to be seen were half a dozen mallard half asleep by the reeds.

Walking back I added to the dragonfly tally with a few common blue damselflies on the causeway and a common darter on the boardwalk. A couple of water rails squealed from the reeds by the boardwalk but I could only see the movement of the reeds where they'd been.

And back home. The weather had been fresher than it had been all week, with a nice breeze to help make the heat a bit less oppressive. Even so I resisted the temptation to try to max out my old man's rail explorer ticket. I needed a cup of tea.

Pennington Flash

Egyptian goose

The good news is the work on the gas main's completed so I'm free to come and go as I please again. The bad news is that I had an attack of choice paralysis. In the end I toddled off to Pennington Flash because it's fairly near and I knew I could get a cold drink or ice cream from one of the vans. Which was good as it was a little warm.

The path in to the car park was noisier than last week with wrens, robins and woodpigeons making themselves heard. Lots of families of people about by the flash but as usual nobody being silly.

Mute swans

On the way over I'd noticed that there had been a report of a black tern here about an hour previously so I scanned about in hope but with no joy. Not altogether surprising: black terns tend to be hit and run visitors. Strangely there were no common terns about either. Plenty of black-headed gulls about and that big raft of lesser black-backs was still sitting in the middle of the water.

I'd found a bench in the shade and had spent quarter of an hour confirming that I wasn't going to be seeing a black tern today. "Ah well," I thought, "I wonder if I'll have any luck finding any of those Egyptian geese that have been kicking round." I put my binoculars down and looked at the bank just below me…

Egyptian geese

The corner by the Horrocks Hide was occupied so I wandered down the path to see what I could see by the Tom Edmondson Hide. No kingfishers today, just a lot of mallard and gadwall feeling the heat, a heron from the screen and a pair of moorhens with small chicks by the hide. A reed warbler and a willow warbler were singing from the vegetation by the path.

Heron

There were a lot of dragonflies about: the usual brown hawkers patrolling most everywhere, common blue damselflies dancing on the water and black-tailed skimmers chasing each other across the reed margins.

The pool by Ramsdales Hide was fairly quiet: a few mallard, a heron, a dabchick and a couple of lapwings. Out in the main body of water a few great crested grebes and a party of tufted ducks were half asleep.

Walking back to the Horrocks Hide there was a chiffchaff following a family of blue tits I struggled to find in the trees. Looking out from beside the Horrocks Hide the spit was standing room only for lapwings, black-headed gulls and mallards all panting in the heat. Down at the end there was a few greylag geese and a couple of cormorants. Close to the hide there were also a few Canada geese and moorhens and, in the middle of the crowd, an Egyptian goose. I didn't manage to see any of the others so I couldn't say whether there were three or four of them there today.

Local patch

Juvenile blue tit

Hanging around at home waiting for the gas to be cut off and connected to the new gas main they've been working on this past week, which had been originally scheduled for last Friday. It's an odd thing but if I have a lazy day on my own accord I can settle down to reading or a bit of gardening or whatever no problem, if I have one imposed on me I just can't settle, A couple of dozen spadgers were a welcome distraction. The new youngsters have learned how to use the sunflower feeders, luckily they're still arriving mob-handed so the goldfinches and titmice get a chance between times. At one point there was a sudden alarm call from a blackbird, all the birds disappeared into the rambling roses and the squirrel that had been sitting on the fence chewing rose hips flattened itself down and made like a piece of wood. Look though I may for the sparrowhawk that must have triggered the alarm I couldn't spot it.

Juvenile house sparrow

Late lunchtime I found out that the work had been postponed again until tomorrow, which is tiresome but almost certainly nobody's fault. It felt too late to go out for the day and it was to hot and sticky to make a walk around the Mersey Valley feel like fun so I decided I'd have a wander for an hour or so round my local patch.

The park was even quieter than last week (there weren't even that many people). The highlight was a juvenile blackcap that flew into one of the elder bushes by the footpath into the old cornfield. It was even quieter on the field: I've never seen or heard so few goldfinches there as I did today. Even the usual traffic of pigeons flying over into Trafford Park was a mere dribble.

I'd got to the end of the path and was feeling a bit deflated when I heard a great spotted woodpecker calling. I struggled to find it and was starting to wonder if I'd been misidentifying the call all these years and looking for some mysterious small brown job in the bramble patches when there was a commotion of magpies and a buzzard flew out of the copse behind the school. After watching the buzzard on its way I turned back to the magpies and saw that there, about six feet below them on the tree trunk, was a juvenile woodpecker. It was nice to see some breeding success here, I see one or other of the adults about once a month but I've never seen any evidence of their doing any more than just passing by. The reason why I had had so much trouble finding it was that except for the few moments as it passed from tree to tree it spent all its time working its way up the far side of the trunk, possibly because it felt more comfortable with a bit of tree cover behind its back.

There was a great spotted woodpecker there a moment ago

• Blackbird 5
• Blackcap 1 juvenile
• Buzzard 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chiffchaff 1
• Feral Pigeon 3
• Goldfinch 3
• Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 juvenile
• House Sparrow 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 overhead
• Magpie 3
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 11
• Wren 1

Blackberries and golden rod

Home thoughts

I'm not awfully good a identifying nocturnal migrants. The oystercatchers that fly over in early Autumn and the calls of skeins pink-footed geese are easy enough but the rest usually leave me puzzled. I was lucky last night: it was a flock of curlews flying over at midnight and lesser black-backs at half-six this morning.

Chat Moss

Southern Hawker, Little Woolden Moss

Today was going to be me sitting at home all day while the men who've been replacing the gas mains connect us to the new pipes but they hit a snag further down the road so I had an unexpectedly free day. So I decided on a wander across Chat Moss, starting from Cutnook Road in Irlam as there have been repeated reports of whinchats in the fields along Twelve Yards Road.

The hedges along Cutnook Road were filled with the cryptic squeaks and clicks of great tits and young robins. The paddocks by Raspberry Lane had a flock of woodpigeons, a couple of juvenile black-headed gulls and a flock of swallows. Brown hawkers patrolled the ditches by the road. 

Chat Moss

I had a chat with a chap coming down the road. We swapped "Quiet today," anodynes and bemoaned the farmer who grubbed up the hedges along Twelve Yards Road and it's impact on the number of whitethroats we've seen this year. He showed me some barn owl photos he'd taken just down the lane (I'd assumed that was a kestrel box abandoned because it was too close to the successful nest in the barn we were standing by). No joy seeing barn owls today but I know to keep my eyes peeled thereabouts in future. Ironically, as we were saying how quiet it was a large family of long-tailed tits and a family of chiffchaffs flew into the tree behind us.

Walking on, the barley fields were being patrolled by black darters and brown hawkers. Chiffchaffs called from the trees but there were no whitethroats whatever. There were plenty of small birds around but very few could be seen. The yellowhammers took pity on me, there was one singing on every field boundary.

Little Woolden Moss

I'm still finding Little Woolden Moss hard work but I'll keep persevering because it's so often rewarding. The goldfinches and linnets were easy enough to see and willow warblers sang in the birch trees but out in the open birds were few and far between. It was teeming with dragonflies, however: scores of black darters, dozens of brown hawkers, a couple of common hawkers and a dozen or more southern hawkers. I was surprised not to see a hobby. A kestrel came in for a quick drink and went away to terrorise the voles of Four Lanes Farm.

I eventually got my eye in and confirmed that there wasn't much on, just a small family party of pied wagtails and a moorhen. I saw something white bobbing up and down behind some sedges and looked for the rest of a moorhen to come into view and it didn't happen. Instead, out popped a female white wagtail! I've never seen one in Greater Manchester and certainly wouldn't have expected to see one this time of year. But there it was, silvery grey back, clean white underparts, looking like it had come straight out of the laundry. She was accompanied by a pale juvenile but I haven't knowingly seen a juvenile white wagtail and I wouldn't feel confident logging this as anything but: "Pied/white." A family of carrion crows bounced in on the other side of the boggy ground then noisily capered over into the fields over the way.

The walk from Little Woolden Moss to Moss Lane was very quiet. I imagine skylarks must have been around somewhere but they were neither heard nor seen. A buzzard floated overhead and carried on in the direction of Astley Moss. Small family parties of linnets and goldfinches fed on the thistles in the field margins. One of the fields that had been full of salad crops last time had been cleared and was being very quietly worked over by a couple of dozen pied wagtails. I'd checked out the potato field for yellow wagtails with no joy so it was a relief when a juvenile flew in and spent a couple of minutes feeding on the path before flying off with some goldfinches. A large flock of swallows were feeding quite high over the ripening barley.

A couple of dozen juvenile starlings were squabbling over the bird feeders by one of the farmyards I passed and a goldcrest was singing from a beech tree by one of the gardens. Glaze Brook was significantly lower than usual, there were no ducks but a heron lurked in the reeds further on.

There was the prospect of a pot of tea singing my name in Stretford. I had ten minutes to wait for the bus into Warrington then ten to wait for my train home but that bus got cancelled so I had to wait half an hour for the bus into Leigh and thence home.