Kersal Wetlands @approx 6:30 pm:

The usual suspects + of note...

• 2 Little Egrets
• 2 Little Grebes
• Pair of Mute Swans with 4 full sized cygnets

Last Thursday 18th July on "my stretch" - no unusual sightings; a few Goosanders including 2 juveniles

But some unusual behaviour - loads of Canada Geese with many doing a lot of splashing in shallow water - presumably cleaning feathers or keeping cool - that wasn't unusual...

Then I noticed 2 or 3 of the Canada Geese were actually swimming totally underwater, like you see the Goosanders doing - I've never seen this before

Has anyone else seen geese doing this?

2 Blackcaps heard - deep in trees so not seen but from other side of the river obviously 2 birds

1 Willow Warbler heard & seen

No Chiffchaffs singing

Goosanders - numbers going up on "my" stretch as the water level goes down - 13 on the gravel bank, 40-50 visible downstream from Broughton Bridge and another 10 or so between

Canada Geese - the first of the goslings have arrived

Willow Warbler - got to see one by the Irwell today - enticed it over the unclimbable wall for a couple of minutes by brief use of Merlin

Yesterday (Mon 15th April), there were 9 Goosanders on the Irwell (high water level) in 2 groups, 5 & 4, but they were all male - never seen that before:

• where have the females gone - surely not all nesting?
• are these the males that have failed to pair up?

Goldeneye - none, starting to think that's it for this winter

Goosander - 4M, 3F - generally they seem to be paired up but shouldn't somebody be sitting on eggs at the moment if they're properly breeding

Siskin - 2F - new species for me on "my" stretch of the Irwell

Still not seen a Kingfisher for ages

Usual stretch:

• Goldeneye - still several about, I counted at least 12 but they were spread out so difficult to be exactly sure
• Goosander - at least 3 pairs about
• Chiffchaff - 1st local one this year - heard it singing across the water and then found it when over the other side - judging by the complete lack all winter I think this is most likely a migrant rather than a winter stayover
• Goldcrest - 2, trying to see if they were a pair (hopefully different crest colour) but so difficult even though they were close - 2 days in a row in the same tree/bush, wonder if it's a possible nest site even though it's right next to the path

River level back up a little bit after being lower last week

Usual stretch...

• Goldeneye 1M 2F downstream from Broughton Bridge
• Goosander 1M - full breeding plumage
• Sparrowhawk - if I had to decide I'd say Male but couldn't get a decent focused view in my bins as it flew past because I'd just been looking at a close-to Goldcrest (i.e. focus fumble) and the view was through some trees as well
• Goldcrest - F ? - certainly a much narrower and "yellow not orange" crest compared with last week's ace view
• Long-tailed Tits - handful, not as big a "family"as I've seen but there's usually a "family" somewhere around
• Cormorant - fishing

River level quite high - not seen a Kingfisher for a while

Goldeneye; Monday 4m 8f, today 1m 1f.

Today, Song Thrush singing strongly, couldn't locate across the river so walked round to the other side of the river to get a good view

Goldcrest (below the Song Thrush), the best view I've ever had of one; very wide, raised and orangey crest. Had to look at various images and the BTO video to convince myself it wasn't a Firecrest - but didn't see any black/white stripiness across & above the eye but the colour intensity of the raised crest had me wondering for some time - probably just an angry male.

But, at last after nearly 2 years of waiting to see one from "my" stretch of the Irwell - a Peregrine flew over

---

Goldeneye numbers still increasing...

• Mon  5 M, 11 F
• Tue   7 M, 15 F
• Wed  4 M, 19 F
• Thu   8 M, 21 F

Last visit this week

"My" stretch of the Irwell just now (Tue 16th 14:30)...

22 Goldeneye, 7M 15 F

1 Pink-footed Goose - with some Canada Geese - quite likely the same one Zoe saw further upstream the other day - almost as tame as the Canadas, happy with me less than 10' away - photos from Smartphone

1 Goosander M - first male I've seen on this stretch for a little while

Where is the Jubilee bridge? - couldn't find it as one of the named bridges on Google Maps

Today on "my" stretch between Broughton Road bridge and the Adelphi footbridge...

• 16 Goldeneye; 5 M, 11F, 3 of the males displaying
• 2 Heron
• Greylag Goose amongst the Canada Geese - it's been seen with them for several years now but first time I've seen it here for a few months
• 2 Goosanders, both F
• Kingfisher flypast - first one I've seen since before all the storms and high river levels
• Little Grebe
• Small flock of Long-tailed tits

Not in great numbers but the Goldeneye have still been around - 2 pairs today

Similarly Goosanders but sightings are currently irregular - 1 pair today

On "my little stretch" - between Broughton Bridge and the Adelphi footbridge. The river level's been pretty high for the last week or two (highest yesterday), and no Goosanders have been seen in that time - presumably on a more favourable (for them) stretch or elsewhere.

But in the last 2 days I've seen 3 "new" species:

• Greenfinch
• Mistle Thrush x2
• Great spotted Woodpecker - I've previously heard them here

But the best spots today were:

• Grey Wagtail hitching a ride on a bit of wood floating down the river - surreal

I also (after being asked by a local what the "big box" was) found what appears to be a Sand Martin nesting "box" on the bank below Broughton Bridge - it's apparently been there for 10-15 years - anyone know anything about this? - obviously I'll see next year if it's still in use.

Good day today on "my little stretch"...

Little Egret on the shingle area between the Adelphi footbridge and the weir upstream - think that's the 4th time I've seen one in the last 17 months since I started coming down here.

A Kingfisher which stayed in one spot for over 10 minutes (still there when I left).

The river levels have been low for the last week or so - no surprise - and as clear as I've yet seen; last week you could easily see the Goosanders (in detail) underwater with the naked eye when they were fishing.

Saw a Garden Warbler on the city-centre side of the river a couple of weeks ago but forgot to report it at the time.

The usual heron and Goosanders (15) today

On "my little stretch" today - a Little Egret, think that's the third time I've seen one here in about 15 months - it was doing a fair bit of fishing, successfully.

The 3 Goosanderlings that have grown up on this part of the river have been allowed out on their own for the last couple of weeks. They're difficult to identify when amongst adult birds if they're just resting, but when moving they're easy to spot because they tend to zoom around more than the adults and also because they go around as a tight threesome, almost always diving together.

Still no recent Kingfisher sighting.

Juvenile's day today:

• 3 Heron, 2 young + bored parent (presumably) on the left - poor quality photo - budget smartphone at max zoom
• Goosander with 3 young - with all the Goosanders how comes I don't see more young?
• Canada Geese goslings - loads, 25+, several broods are in a creche

Haven't seen a Kingfisher for ages, even though the water levels/flow/speed are now suitably down, I think this isn't a nesting area of the river so they won't be back quite yet

The male Goosanders are losing their green heads already

I was wrong, single male Goldeneye spotted downstream from Broughton Bridge (one end of my stretch).

Still seeing a few Goldeneye on "my" stretch of the Irwell, 6 yesterday (5M, 1F), only 2M today.

I'm getting the feeling that the Goosanders are pairing up - seeing more M+F together rather than groups of M or F.