Summary December 2012
Garden
The start of December saw a change in the weather from the extremely wet weather of November to dry, sunny and freezing. This brought about a transformation in the garden with the sudden appearance of two Mistle Thrushes, two Blackbirds and a small flock of Starlings as well as a Robin, a Dunnock and lots of Blue and Great Tits – and a Coal Tit. On the feeder the Goldfinches are returning in numbers and, in general, the garden is suddenly very busy again. On the 5th we saw a Magpie eating a Starling in its entirety whilst sitting in a neighbour’s tree (the Magpie that is) which was a vicious affair. We could not tell whether it had killed it or whether it was carrion but it certainly made short work of it. On 6th we had a female Blackcap on our bird table and a Wren also visited the garden. On the 9th we saw the first two Greenfinches on our feeder for a long time. On the 10th we started to see a male Blackcap in addition to the female and on the 12th we had a Bullfinch in the rose bush at the end of the garden. On the 13th we had Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Blackcaps, Mistle Thrushes, Blackbird, Coal, Blue and Great Tits, Starling, Magpie, Robin, Woodpigeon and a Jay also flew over the garden. On Boxing Day we had a small flock of Long-tailed Tits on our feeders. As the month came towards the end the heavy rain resumed although in Manchester we seem to have the best of the available weather for the country with flooding common elsewhere.
Birding Group Days Out
The first birding group visit of the month was to WWT Martin Mere. The high points of the day were Goldcrest and a pair of Bewick Swans – the first for the year as far as I can recall. The second birding group visit of the month – and the last of the term – was to Dunham Massey where we again saw Goldcrests but, this time, more extended views than we had at Martin Mere. Like at Martin Mere they were in amongst a small flock of Long-tailed Tits. We also saw several Jays and a small flock of Redwings. We had a good walk on a nice bright – if cold – day and then had lunch and planned the venues for the next term.The schedule ended up like this
Walks and Days Out
We took a walk around Chorlton Water Park and Kenworthy Woods on the first of December. We were hoping to see some Redpolls but we didn’t. In fact it was rather quiet but there were a pair of Little Grebes and half a dozen Pochards on the water as well as the usual Great crested Grebe and Tufted Ducks. The wet weather and the approach of Christmas rather kept us from doing much walking but on Boxing Day we managed a walk along Brook Burn, the Mersey, Sale Water Park to Jackson’s Boat and back again. The water level was really high but it was clear from the silt on the banks that it had been very much higher recently. All the new revetments along Brook Burn were under water and the Mersey was extremely high. The small pond along the right side of the Mersey had merged with the water meadow to make one huge lake upon which were Mallards and Canada Geese.
We walked down into the water park and some of the pools and bodies of water on the left were higher than the footpath and had already started to seep little rivulets across the path into the main lake on the right. Clearly this would have been much worse recently and may even have been impassable. The main lake had risen so far that all the angler’s platforms were under water. On the main lake we saw Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls, Great-crested Grebes, Coots etc and at Broad Ees Dole there were Shoveler, Tufted Ducks, Gadwall and Heron. On the electricity pylon there were a couple of Cormorants. As we walked over the new bridge we also saw half a dozen Goldeneye.