Sale Water Park 12th December 2011

Sale Water Park 12th December 2011

In a break in the patch of wet weather we have had recently I went for a walk in Chorlton – along the burn, down to the Mersey, over the bridge and through Sale Water Park and returning to Chorlton Green via Jackson’s Bridge. Normally this would be a fairly mundane walk with no great expectation of seeing anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps it was the cold weather but it turned out to be much more interesting than usual and particularly enjoyable as a result of the dog walkers and cyclists and joggers being put off by the cold.

My first sighting was  a pair Mistle Thrushes squabbling about territory just at the brook by the bridge by Brookburn School. I walked down the side of the burn until it met the Mersey and then I followed the River Mersey down to the railway bridge. En route I stopped briefly at the pond on the right where where I saw a Grey Heron, some Mallard and Canada Geese which is par for the course but there was also a small group of Teal which was the first time I have seen  them at this spot.

I continued on past the water meadows – full as usual of Canada Geese, Magpies and Wood Pigeons – to the end of the path and crossed at the railway bridge and went down to the start of the water park.

As I walked through the park following the edge of the water there were the usual Blackbirds, Robins and Crows to be seen and on an electricity pylon a single Cormorant was perched. I later saw this one diving on the water. There was a Great-crested Grebe and lots of Coot and a couple of Moorhens. I stopped off at the hide at Broad Dole Ees to see what was on the lake there and saw four Shovelers. There’s usually a bit more here but the lack of variety was made up for when, as I was watching the Shovelers, a pair of Goosander flew in and landed on the water. I spent a while looking at these unusual visitors to the area before going back along the edge of the lake that is the main part of the water park but here there were lots of birds on the water. Apart rom the usual Mute Swans and Black-headed Gulls and Coots there were also a couple of Teal and a couple of Pochard but more unusually there was a small flock of Gadwall – eight in all and quite close to the edge of the water. This was the first time I had seed Gadwall at this site.

When I got to the end of the lake I would normally have veered right and walked through the woods with the reed bed on the left but the wall at the end of the lake was being rebuilt where a bit had collapsed. Interestingly a real bridge had been built going over where the end of the lake feeds into the reed bed that is usually fairly short of water. I had not realised it before but there must have been a culvert running under there all along and this has obviously been cleared out to let the water run through better and a substantial stone bridge now stands there. Quite an attractive development of the site and presumably designed to let a bit more water through to the other side where the reeds are.

The upshot of this was, however, was that I couldn’t go my usual route and was re-directed to the left through the sodden grassland and along the big mown field that is used by the local model airplane enthusiasts for their flying practice. Amazingly, as I was walking along the edge of this field, just about 40 foot to my left appeared a bird flying the length of the field in open space with nothing to camouflage it. This rocket of a bird turned out to be a Kingfisher !

Rather pleased with myself by now I thought I should head off home. I didn’t think I could do much better that I had done already but my birding wasn’t quite over for the afternoon as, resisting stopping for a drink at Jackson’s Boat, I walked over the bridge and just in a stand of trees to the right was a small flock of around eight Bullfinches. A bit further along I came across a small group of Long-tailed Tits and thinking that was it for birding. as I emerged onto the main road at Brookburn School I looked over to the trees behind the houses opposite and saw a roost of around 300 Jackdaws ! As I watched more were arriving so I am not quite sure how many there are at maximum but I had never seen this roost before despite passing by here reasonably often.

At the end of the day – literally – I had to conclude that the coldest days may be the best for birding around Sale Water Park because I had had such a good afternoon with such a variety of birds.

Bird Sightings : Sale Water Park