Elton Reservoir, Withins Reservoir and a bit of Radcliffe

Sketch map of Elton and Withins Reservoir

Elton Reservoir lies just over a mile outside Bury town centre and was originally the feeder for the Bolton and Bury Canal which starts nearby. Nearby is the much smaller Withins Reservoir which fed local factories and the path down from the Elton Reservoir to the canal overlooks a bend of the River Irwell. The combination of different types and depths of water, grazed fields and well-grown hedgerows can lead to a few hours' very productive birdwatching. In Winter the gulls will include great black-backs, possibly a yellow-legged gull or a Mediterranean gull, little gulls are regular Spring passage migrants. Waterfowl include the usual Pennine reservoir suspects with occasional scaup and common scoter being occasional visitors in Winter. I'm an irregular visitor to Elton Reservoir these days, my site total is currently 91 species.

There are lots of different ways of getting onto Elton Reservoir from Bury. My preferred route these days is to get the 471 bus out and get off at the Grange Road stop on Bolton Road. I turn off onto White Street and at the bottom of the road I follow on until I get to the little road on the left that goes over the bridge towards the hospital and thence to the reservoir. (This bridge goes over one of the green paths that used to be a railway line.)

The car park at the corner of the reservoir by the sailing club is a good place to pause and look back amongst the trees. These are festooned with feeders, giving you a chance to get your eye in as they were visited by chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches and bullfinches. In late Winter there was always a very good chance of lesser redpoll, possibly brambling, maybe even a mealy redpoll. 

You have a choice now, go over the little bridge over the stream and follow the path on the North side of the reservoir or go down the road and follow the path on the South side.

Common gull

On the Northern shore there's a bit of grassland with bushes, then the path goes through some bushes either side of the creek, then over through a thinly-wooded bit of ground to the Western end of the reservoir. As you approach the creek this path gets very muddy indeed and doesn't get much better further on, especially if horse riders have been along. On the plus side you tend to get better views of the gulls and ducks on the water and the hawthorns along the path can be heaving with finches and warblers. In the overgrown hedges Chiffchaffs, willow warblers, blackcaps and whitethroats are the most likely while sedge warblers are often found singing by the water's edge. There are a couple of tiny small beaches (a yard or so deep) at the mouth of the creek, it's worth checking these on the off-chance there's a wader of two there: redshanks or ruffs sometimes drop in on passage and it's the sort of place where you might see a common or a green sandpiper but I never have.

Mediterranean gull

Elton Reservoir, North shore

Coot and young

Following the road past the sailing club you go past a couple of cottages with an interesting collection of chickens and just past these there's a little cut on the right that becomes the path along the South bank of the reservoir. Continuing down the road gets you to the canal, before you get there you can turn onto the road that comes back up to the reservoir. If the weather's turned bad on a Winter's day you might prefer this route for walking, it's very exposed up on the bank path.

Cattle grazing by the South bank of the reservoir

A view from the South bank of the reservoir

The path on the South Bank is close to the water's edge but being raised up it's drier than the path on the North side. It's also shorter and straighter and you get an uninterrupted view of the whole reservoir. For some reason the great crested grebes come in closer to the water's edge on this side and as they're not overly fussed about people you can get some very close views of them.

Great crested grebe

Feeder stream for the canal

Keep a look out over the fields to the South of the reservoir. Usually there are pipits, finches and thrushes of one sort or another. There's generally a raptor about, usually a buzzard or a kestrel, possibly a sparrowhawk. If there's a little egret about it's likely to be either on this shoreline of the reservoir or somewhere round the feeder stream for the canal. Most of the ducks on the reservoir congregate at the Western end where there's more cover and less disturbance by the sailing club.

At the West end of the reservoir you've three choices:

• Continue your circuit of the reservoir
• Go down the road past the farmhouse and on to the canal, from there either back to Bury or walk down the canal to Radcliffe
• Carry on down the path at the corner of the reservoir towards Withins Reservoir and Radcliffe

Wheatear

Carrying on down the path at the corner you soon come to a junction. The rough path on the left takes you onto Withins Reservoir, thence past the farm and onto the canal. Carrying straight on takes you past a couple of horses stables and eventually takes you onto St. Andrews Road down to Ainsworth Road where you can get the 98 bus into Radcliffe then Manchester or cross the road for the 98 to Bury. In Winter in bad weather I usually end up taking the St Andrews Road route.

In Spring stop and check out the field at the corner of this junction, it's a magnet for wheatears.

Withins Reservoir

The path by Withins Reservoir starts fairly rough and stays fairly rough most of its length. Withins Reservoir is small and doesn't have the variety of birds you'll see on Elton Reservoir and sometimes you won't find a thing but having said that I've managed to find 54 species hereabouts over the years so it's worth having a nosy round. Passing the reservoir, the path drops down into a scrubby field and back up onto a ridge hedged with hawthorns (well worth checking out for passage migrants, though I keep missing out on the redstarts). It then passes over a surprisingly well-made bridge and then follows the back wall of a farmstead before opening out onto somebody's front lawn. At this point you'll worry that you've taken a wrong turning. You haven't, you just need to turn right, walk across the lawn (I walk along the side of the hedge so's not to invade anyone's privacy too much) and join the little road that goes over the bridge. You can either follow the road down to the end where it joins Bury Road and get a bus into Bury or Radcliffe or you can carry on walking down the canal towpath.

Bolton & Bury Canal

As you walk down into Radcliffe the North side of the canal is open fields with their fair share of lapwings and woodpigeons. In Summer sedge warblers and reed buntings sing from the reeds in the canal and the sand martins that nest by the river in Radcliffe town centre are busy overhead. The land on the South side of the canal is more complicated: there's a paddock, a couple of fields that have almost permanent big puddles and a good-sized pond fringed by trees, and most of the way there's a thin hawthorn hedge along the towpath. This variety packed into a relatively small ribbon of land explains why according to my records I've seen 62 species of bird along this stretch of canal. Once in a while you get a big surprise like the very obliging drake garganey that hung around in one of the big puddles for a couple of weeks a few years back.

Garganey in a big puddle in a field by the canal

The red metal bridge over the canal tells you you're in Radcliffe town centre.You can either now carry on along the canal to Blackburn Road and thence down to the bus station or you can take the path just after the bridge (Banana Path, honestly!) and get to Radcliffe Tram Station.