Elton Reservoir

The rather ambitious itinerary planned for today went by the board as it took me till past four o'clock in the morning to get to sleep and I didn't reckon on doing the excursion on less than three hours of sleep. So I stole a couple more hours of sleep and went for a wander round Elton Reservoir.

Lesser black-backed gull, Elton Reservoir

Despite all the recent rain the water was surprisingly low. Very few gulls about and just the two common terns. Ducks on the water inlcuded a lot of mallards, a single female goosander, one teal and a tufted duck with one well-grown duckling. There were a dozen great crested grebes on the water, most of which were asleep.

Great crested grebes, Elton Reservoir

The trees around the reservoir were more productive: a few good-sized flocks of goldfinches kept flitting about; warblers included whitethroats, chiffchaffs and willow warblers, including one of the latter singing from one of the trees by the path. The bushes by the creek were particularly busy with blue tits and one hawthorn bush hosted a lesser whitethroat and a kingfisher.

It seemed odd not to have any hirundines hawking over the reservoir. The horse paddocks between Withins Reservoir and St. Andrews Road made up the difference with a large mixed flock of swallows and sand martins feeding low over the fields and house martins feeding higher up. It was nice to meet a flock of twenty-plus house sparrows in the hedgerows along the way.