Call me Gandalf...

Sometimes days are unplanned as so it was...well, today. I had not awoken to thoughts of the patch but instead they emerged lunchtime and with them the urge to visit. Even then, I wasn't going 'for' a particular bird, nor even 'for' a particular part of the patch... I figured, as I quite often do, that I'd let the Universe decide and ended up parking at the cross and chatting to a bloke about the patch. He was there for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and hence, so it seems was I, and neither of us saw it. She remains illusive, being only occasionally seen near the cross. I did though get this chap Gandalf the Grey Wagtail, a year tick for me, as we conversed... it flitted through the waterlogged woody bit that was The Student Garden. 

Otherwise, it was all ears and wet feet. Ears first. Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Crow, Pheasant, Wood Pigeon, a distant Teal, an equally distant Wigeon (both presumably on Lapwing Lake), a closer brief burst of Cetti's Warbler, a middle-distance yaffle of Green Woodpecker and a surprising Tawny Owl calling briefly, somewhere back up Lapwing Lane. Then came the wet feet...

As the LSW was a no show, I thought I'd try for Snipe. I have still yet to get one, but figured there'd be enough sogginess to flush one along the north edge of the patch that is bounded by the Mersey and its shoreline of reeds and wet grassland. And so I tromped from Lapwing Lane to Norton Marsh along the river. I would not recommend it to anyone. It is crazily overgrown, hard plodding and very, very wet. There were no Snipe either... which was annoying, but I did flush a Woodcock and got another year tick - a flock of Linnet (c40) on one of the stubble fields together with 39 Curlew. 

To be honest, everywhere Upper Moss Side end was really quiet, apart from Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Dunnock and Wren...oh and a couple of Common Buzzard over and the occasional gull. No Yellowhammer. On a brighter note, the two farms look potentially promising as launch pads for the Barn Owl caught on camera nearby a few days back...

Anyway, I shouldn't complain... it got me out for a few hours in the sunshine and I got some nice birds along the way...plus, I'm now fired up for an early start tomorrow. Let's see if that happens, eh?

Year list now at... 78spp