Elton Reservoir

Elton Reservoir

An afternoon stroll round Elton Reservoir with a brief spate of sunshine in between showers. I was half-hoping to add lesser redpoll to the annual list but they tend to turn up after the New Year so it wasn't desperately disappointing to not find any. The usual feeding stations by the sailing club were removed earlier this year (is this another place that's had a rat problem this year?) so there was no idling about in the car park to see what was coming in. Plenty of goldfinches and greenfinches about, a fair-sized flock of house sparrows and a pair of bullfinches feeding on the dock seeds amongst the chickens by the High Bank cottages. I could hear a heron calling but couldn't see it. Until I looked up.

Grey heron

Most of the gulls on the reservoir were black-headed gulls. Out in the middle there was a raft of mostly juvenile herring and lesser black-backed gulls (a few more adults flew in as I was walking round). Half a dozen great black-backs and a few common gulls were dotted about. A third-Winter (I think) yellow-legged gull flew in with a couple of lesser back-backs and some herring gulls.

Cormorant and great black-back

Common gull

Besides gulls there were the usual suspects, including nearly a hundred coot, a couple of dozen tufted ducks and a dozen great crested grebes. A little egret worked its way round the water's edge. As I walked along the path on the Eastern side (which was just as wet but not nearly as muddy as the path on the other side) I disturbed a grey wagtail and as I was looking to see where it had gone a kingfisher zoomed past across the reservoir. A few pied wagtails were feeding amongst the Highland cattle in the field by the farmhouse. A couple of dozen Canada geese had gathered together at the Southern end of the reservoir, together with a few teal, a female goldeneye and two male pochards. And there, sitting on the bank, was the kingfisher that had flown by earlier.

Kingfisher

I wandered down the very muddy path over to Withins Reservoir, which was mostly quiet besides a few teal and mallard then retraced my steps back to the path towards St. Andrew's Road and wandered down to get the bus back into Manchester.

The lane from Withins Reservoir to St. Andrew's Road