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| Elton Reservoir |
I was determined to have a lazy day, get some reading and writing done, make serious inroads on the stocks of tea, that sort of thing. But reports of black terns at Elton Reservoir made me fidgety. Black terns, like little gulls, are capricious and highly mobile Spring passage migrants, they may linger for days or they may be gone in a blink of an eye, you go to see them the first chance you get or you might not get another this year. So I headed over to try my luck.
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| Daisyfield Greenway The old Bury to Bolton railway line. |
I got off the 471 at Buckingham Drive, walked through the housing estate and cut over the Daisyfield Greenway onto the meadows by the reservoir. Blackbirds, willow warblers, robins and wrens sang in the trees as I passed by.
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| Elton Reservoir |
Some of the usual gang of mute swans, Canada geese, mallards and coots loafed about near the sailing club, half a dozen pure white fancy pigeons tidied up after a feeding the ducks session. There were a few dozen black-headed gulls out on the water making plenty of noise. Most of them were second calendar year birds moulting into their brown hoods but keeping their juvenile brown scapular feathers on their wings. It took a while to see any black terns, they were out in midwater over near the farmhouse. I reckoned I'd get a better view of them from the other side.
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| Lesser black-backs and black tern |
I walked round onto the Southern edge of the reservoir. I was getting better views of the black terns, four of them, but they were still distant. Every so often they would disappear and I'd eventually find them as black dots sitting on top of buoys. They never lingered long, they spent most of their time feeding on insects over the water, fidgeting and jinking as they chased their prey.
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| Black tern |
An oystercatcher called loudly as it flew low over to the fields beyond. Besides the terns and black-headed gulls on the reservoir there was a small raft of lesser black-backs, a couple of pairs of great crested grebes and a score of mallards. For once I couldn't see any tufted ducks about. Instead of the crowds of sand martins I saw last time there was just a handful of them and a couple of swallows.
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| Bury and Bolton Canal |
I walked down from the reservoir to the canal, blackbirds, chiffchaffs and willow warblers singing all the way. As I crossed the canal three goosanders flew low over the bridge and headed into Radcliffe. For once I remembered to take the path under the tram bridge and was rewarded by a grey wagtail skittering about the riverbank.
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| River Irwell at Warth Bridge |
The 513 to Farnworth was due at the stop on Warth Bridge before the 513 to Bury, which suited me fine. I got off in Kearsley and got the 20 back to the Trafford Centre and thence home. I didn't feel like dealing with a sunny Saturday teatime in the city centre.

















































