Frodsham

A damp sedge warbler

Had my first proper birdwatching jaunt since mid-March, getting one on before all hell breaks loose. A carriage to myself on the Frodsham train coming and going and mostly next to nobody around in the rain. The exception was part of the bank next to Tank No.6 on the marsh where the red-necked phalarope that arrived over the weekend was showing quite well. No chance of a decent photo, it was too far away, as this picture shows.

No.6 Tank
Black-tailed godwits, lapwings, shelduck and black-headed gulls.
The red-necked phalarope is a small distant smudge by a shelduck.

Just over the motorway bridge on the way into the marsh chiffchaffs, blackcaps and blackbirds were singing from the trees and bushes.

The walk along the path to No.6 Tank was amazing. The heavy weather had brought hirundines and swifts down to feed. The prelude was a small flock of sand martins and swallows feeding at waist height. Further along there was a large flock of swifts — a hundred or more — feeding just over head height, with a good few whizzing disconcertingly over my shoulder. They were joined by half a dozen house martins.

Standing on the bank overlooking the Western end of the water I saw a small flock of lapwings fly in, accompanied by the red-necked phalarope. I immediately lost it once it landed, instead of swimming on the water it wandered about on the mud and mingled with the lapwings and teal at the water margins. A chap with a telescope joined me and between us we found it again. A peep through the 'scope showed me that it was a very nice, brightly plumaged female. (Thank you, sir). A few more birders turned up so I quit the bank to let them take their turn, I'd seen what I could of it from there. I had another look from further along the path and could just see the bird but I wouldn't have been able to identify it from there.

Other birds on the tank included a hundred or so black-tailed godwits, a dozen or so each of shoveler, gadwall and mallard, a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks and a few dozen teal. A couple of dozen black-headed gulls loafing by the water's edge were joined by a common gull.

Frodsham Marsh

Out on the marsh a few shelduck accompanied the sheep and a small family party of carrion crows followed the cattle about. A constant stream of odd ones and twos of lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls flew overhead. Further out there was a party of twenty-odd Canada geese and four uncharacteristically quiet ravens.

The bushes along the path were busy with wrens, whitethroats and reed buntings. Reed warblers singing in the reeds by the path showed well but weren't for being photographed.

The little pool in the field at the corner of the path held a family of shelduck, the youngsters being pretty much full grown, and a couple of pied wagtails. The larger pool had a couple of mallard and two dozen tufted ducks.

My first grasshopper warbler of the year was singing by the gate to Tank No.5.  A little way down a Cetti's warbler sang from an overgrown ditch.

At this point a light mizzle became a heavy downpour.

The fields alongside Lordship Lane were mostly quiet aside from a small flock of lapwings that fussed from field to field and a hare running about in a field of corn. I was watching this when another Cetti's warbler started singing from the ditch on the tank side.

Along that stretch of the lane were three singing sedge warblers and a family of reed warblers, together with a couple more whitethroats. As I got to the model flying club's field I was surprised to see a yellowhammer, I can't remember seeing one here before.

A train home, getting back to Oxford Road to see my train home off and away.

A black redstart singing from a rooftop as I waited for the bus on Chepstow Street brings the year list to 150.

More home thoughts

Spadgling

We're into that difficult time of year when a lot of bird activity is quietly conducted under cover of leaves and the more usually boisterous elements are quietly skulking their way through post-breeding moult. If I didn't offer a well-stocked pantry the year round I'd suspect I wouldn't see half the birds in the garden.

I had been wondering about the breeding success of the pair of great tits. Judging by the very well grown juvenile that's finally made its way to the feeding station there's been plenty enough pickings along the railway embankment to keep a family going. This may explain the lack of young blue tits despite tantalising noises heard as I walk down the road, the parents still pop in at least once a day.

Spadgling

The garden is full of a new cohort of young spadgers, this group being escorted by a couple of female sparrows. The young goldfinch that's been a regular is now nearly in full adult colours, only the pepper and salt colouring of the white patches on its face show its age. I'm getting four adult goldfinches at most in the garden these days, ten years or so ago it was routinely in double figures.

Goldfinches

The male coal tit's been a regular in the garden this week, sounding very full of himself on arrival. The female called in this morning. She's looking a bit ragged and streaky in moult. When I first spotted her I wondered what on earth she was.

The herring gull – lesser black-back combo's floating around the school playing field again this evening. The first young jackdaw of the season was amongst the half dozen strutting about the field. I keep trying to get a photo of one of the adults, it has a particularly pale grey nape that's very striking. The young jackdaw was making a nuisance of itself with the woodpigeons, which included a very young bird barely out of the nest.

Home thoughts

Juvenile blackbird

A warm, lazy day at home. I wanted to go haring off on a long-distance birdwatching jaunt, intent on getting them in in the window between starting to ease the lockdown and all hell breaking loose but I just let the trains and buses go and consoled myself with the thought that I could potter round the local patch, which I have neglected badly lately, but I just didn't get round to it.

The usual male great tit reappeared after a couple of weeks' absence the other day, the female turned up today. Whereas he was nearly in showroom condition having nearly finished his moult she, poor thing, is nearly bald and has a couple of loose tail feathers liable to fall any moment.

I'm going to have to start picking the boysenberries at twilight. Each evening I look out and see a fresh lot fully ripened in the day's sun and most of them are snaffled by the blackbirds in dawn raids. I don't begrudge them a share of the pickings but they've been a bit greedy this year.

I'd refilled the feeders and was picking my first batch of blackcurrants when one of the coal tits came in for a quick feed. At the same time the blackcap started singing in the sycamores on the railway embankment. I thought we'd heard the last from him, it's good to know he's still around after all. Also a relief was the six swifts hawking overhead, not huge numbers but they're still with us.

High Rid

I wanted to go a little farther afield today so I decided to go for a visit to High Rid Reservoir, the thinking being that it won't be overly busy (it wasn't) and I might strike lucky with something different (I didn't). Still, it's worth a go — if you don't go and look, you don't get to see.

The reservoir was very quiet. There were four families of mallards dabbling round the margins — two with nearly full grown ducklings, two with ducklings barely a couple of weeks old. Out in the middle of the water there was a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks, including a couple of drakes who were determined that the mating season wasn't over.

Mallard

There were a couple of dozen lesser black-backs, some drifting overhead but most taking their turns to land on the reservoir for a wash and a drink. Black-headed gulls drifted in in dribs and drabs and there singles of herring gull and common gull.

I took care to keep scanning the water margins (I was sort of hoping for a common sandpiper) but aside from mallards there was just a couple of juvenile pied wagtails.

Juvenile pied wagtail

A kestrel flew low over and a buzzard put the wind up the woodpigeons up the hill. Prize of the day was the great black-back that cruised over the ridge of the hill and set off southwards towards Rumworth Lodge.

Warblers were unsurprisingly thin on the ground: a chiffchaff singing from the gardens on Fall Birch Road, a blackcap on the golf course across the road, a whitethroat singing in the bushes on the hill and a willow warbler singing from the trees by the little pond by the reservoir.

A short, quiet walk over a muggy lunchtime and a nice breeze to take the edge off the heavy weather.

Monday mosses

Juvenile yellow wagtail, Chat Moss

I thought I'd have another look round the Salford mosses, in the hopes of getting a better photo of that Channel wagtail if it's still around. I decided to take a different approach so I took the ten minute train ride to Irlam and walked from the station up Astley Road to Four Lanes End, thence through Little Woolden Moss to Glazebury.

Irlam Moss

First time I've walked up Irlam Moss this way. It's a nice walk but some of the pantechnicons steaming through had a strange idea of what "Not suitable for heavy vehicles" may mean.

Chiffchaffs and blackbirds were doing most of the singing at the beginning of the lane, with backing vocals from blackcaps and song thrushes. As the landscape opened up they gave way to robins, wrens and whitethroats. For the first time this year I bumped into a decent sized flock of swallows, feeding low over the fields of barley and around a couple of horse paddocks. A good dozen house martins joined in the fun.

Glancing up I noticed a couple of black headed gulls flying overhead. Then one of them called and I had a closer look to confirm they were a pair of adult Mediterranean gulls. They flew North, I wonder if that's the pair that sometimes roost at Pennington Flash.

Approaching the motorway there were half a dozen actual black-headed gulls in one of the fields, together with a couple of dozen lesser black-backs of all ages from first calendar year to full adult. A brown hare in the middle of the field studiously ignored them.

A bit further on a couple of tree sparrows joined a family of pied wagtails picking over the mowings at the corner of the lane. A little way ahead, just before Four Lanes End, a male yellow wagtail was feeding one of its youngsters. Another male yellow wagtail was calling noisily from the front lawn of Four Lane Ends Farm, imagine having that as a garden tick!

The thin woodland at the entrance to Little Woolden Moss was thick with the songs of willow warblers and whitethroats, with at least two families of willow warblers skittering around amongst the saplings. The clearings were heaving with meadow pipits, including at least seven males doing their parachute drop song display. A couple of reed buntings added to the songscape.

I generally don't have a lot of luck scanning the open water on the moss. Today was different: there were the usual half a dozen or so pied wagtails, and yet more meadow pipits, but also a couple of oystercatchers loafing in the company of a couple of black-headed gulls, an adult and a youngster. A little further along, near where the hide used to be, I noticed a bit of movement on the far side of the pool: an adult ringed plover with two well-grown juveniles. A couple of curlews could be mostly heard but not seen in the distance. A kestrel hovered over one of the pools; I've no idea what it was hunting, I can't imagine many voles or shrews venturing out onto the bare peat there. The one dragonfly of the day was a black darter that flew along the path then jinked off stage left and into the cotton grass.

The distant "Too dark to be a kestrel, too lightly built for a hobby and what's going on with all that tail?" bird was a female cuckoo quietly going about her business of upsetting meadow pipits.

If the quail's still in that field it was being very quiet about it. There had obviously been a mass emergence of small tortoiseshells, every thistle on the field boundaries had at least two jostling for the best flower heads. They were joined by a couple of large skippers and a handful of red admirals. I didn't have any luck with the Channel wagtail: there were four or five yellow wagtails dashing in and out of cover in the potato field just beyond the poly tunnels but I couldn't see any of them well enough to spot anything unusual. A small flock of linnets fed on the weed seedheads along the path.

Small tortoiseshell and large skipper, Little Woolden Moss

A pleasant walk down Moss Lane, with half a dozen sand martins over Glaze Brook and a similar number of house martins over the water treatment works.

I got the bus into Leigh, again waving goodbye to the 126 to the Trafford Centre as it left as we were arriving. I got the 34 into Worsley then had half an hour's mooching round the canal before getting the 68 to the Trafford Centre and thence home.

Mersey Valley

Stretford Meadows

I didn't feel like going for a walk today, which is an excellent reason for going for a walk. I decided to take the bridge over the motorway from Stretford Meadows to Ashton-on-Mersey and walk down to Urmston Meadows, a walk I've never done before. Turns out it's a nice walk but one to do when it's not likely that everyone and their dog will be bombing down the paths on their bikes.

I walked along the southern margin of Stretford Meadows from Newcroft Road. Plenty of chiffchaffs, wrens and robins singing with blackbirds, blackcaps and dunnocks providing the accompaniment. A couple of reed buntings and a whitethroat could be heard singing from the hawthorns in the open.

Once over the bridge I followed a path that runs along the Ousel Brook. A lot of chiffchaffs singing in the trees, together with a couple of song thrushes and greenfinches, and a pair of bullfinches flew over. This path eventually leads on to a lane that runs back to the A56 so I retraced my steps and took another path running roughly parallel to the motorway. This runs down to the Mersey opposite the Ashton-on-Mersey golf course.

This stretch of the river was a bit barren, even bearing in mind how busy it was with people. Upstream there was a duck mallard with a couple of ducklings, downstream nothing. I hadn't seen any swallows or martins all day and the only swifts had been flying over my garden.

River Mersey, Ashton-on-Mersey

Once I passed under the Carrington Road bridge and into Urmston Meadows there was a bit more space but not a lot more birds. House sparrows were feeding on red admiral caterpillars on the nettles by the path. At the next river bend the banks became more overgrown and the river ran over a particularly rocky bit of bed. This obviously suited the flock of a couple of dozen sand martins feeding low over the water. I heard the first willow warbler of the day singing in the willows just before I got to the cemetery.

Walking on towards Urmston town centre I saw the first swallow of the day hawking over one of the paddocks. Just the one swallow. They seem to be in very short supply this year.

I noticed that the house martins which usually nest on the corner of Flixton Road, which have been notable by their absence this past couple of years have adopted on of the buildings on the corner of Church Road. It's less picturesque but has a good overhang which provides better shelter from the elements.

Back home I glanced out of the living room window while I was having my tea and was delighted to see a family of eight young long-tailed tits at the bird feeders.

Showers

One of those rainy June days when the garden is suddenly full of young house sparrows.

Etherow Country Park

Dipper

Had a few hours' strolling round Etherow Country Park and Keg Wood while the weather was behaving itself. Despite the recent heavy rain the water was normal though muddy and the ground underfoot was only lightly damp. Plenty of people about but Keg Wood was fairly quiet.

All the usual suspects were at the car park — Canada geese, farm gees, mallards, coots, pigeons and black-headed gulls. A few juvenile black-headed gulls were testament to success at one or other of the local breeding grounds. Walking down the path there were some very young mallard ducklings, nesting coots and a couple of young moorhens. I noticed we're back down to the two Muscovy ducks. A few robins, wrens and blackbirds sang along the little canal and chiffchaffs and chaffinches sang from the high treetops.

As I crossed the bridge I met the first mandarin ducks of the day: a bunch of well-grown juveniles, females and a couple of drakes already coming into eclipse plumage.In fact, all day there were only a couple of drakes still in full breeding finery.

Drake mandarin

I was hoping to be able to add dipper to the year list as I scanned the river. A family of grey wagtails including a couple of noisy youngsters were a nice consolation prize. I walked up to the weir and had a look round but the only bird there was a mallard. By chance as I turned I glanced downriver and noticed a grey shape bob up onto one of the rocks. A very nice juvenile dipper. I'd no sooner spotted it than it flew off downstream.

Horsetails by a small stream, Keg Wood

Keg Wood was mostly quiet of people but noisy of birds, though the sounds of kids playing by the Keg Pool echoed around every so often. Most of the birdsong came from wrens and chiffchaffs, supported by blackbirds, robins and blackcaps. A singing goldcrest was insistent but nearly impossible to see as it kept to the cover of the darker corners of a larch tree. High up a couple of young nuthatches were dogging the heels of their parents, stopping every so often to beg from the ends of bare branches (not for the first time I wondered why I've never seen a sparrowhawk here). Small families of blue tits flitted through the willows by the clearings but great tits were curiously absent, it feels a bit early for them to be disappearing into post-breeding moult though they seem to have done the same at home, too.

Hearing, but not seeing, a treecreeper by the "bus shelter" at Sunny Corner I decided to sit awhile and wait for it to turn up. After a couple of minutes it obligingly flew to the base of the tree directly opposite across the clearing and worked its way up the trunk before being disturbed by a grey squirrel. This being the closest thing to a hide in the wood I stayed for ten minutes to see what else might turn up. A couple of magpies, a jay, one of the blue tit families, a couple of wrens. I was hoping that there might still be a pied flycatcher or two about but it wasn't to be today.

Walking back, I had another look downriver from the weir. The male grey wagtail was busy collecting insects beside one of the eddying pools in the rapids. I walked down over the scary wooden bridge where the canal overflow forms its waterfalls and looked back. An adult dipper bobbed up from behind a rock and decided to stay awhile to preen and get a breather.

Dipper

Dipper

There were a few more mallard families along the little canal, the ducklings mostly well-grown but a few youngsters amongst them.

Mallard duckling

A nice walk and I got the bus home well before it started raining again.

Thundery mosses

Cotton grass, Little Woolden Moss

They've been promising thunderstorms for the past few days and nothing's happened, so I decided to have that walk across Chat Moss. And you'll never guess what happened. Luckily, although the thunder rolled in when I arrived at Little Woolden Moss the rain held off until I was two hundred yards from the bus stop on Warrington Road. Mind you, when it did come it was a deluge!

I got off the 100 bus from the Trafford Centre at the bottom of Cutnook Lane. A pair of buzzards were being harassed by a carrion crow. Once it had chased them over the motorway it decided its job was done and it went back to the football pitch.

It was one of those heavy, humid days which seem to encourage birds to sing. The most numerous warblers along Cutnook Lane were willow warblers. Blackcaps and chiffchaffs made up the weight and there was a single whitethroat in the horse paddock. I heard a willow tit-like chirring but couldn't find the source; a few yards down I bumped into a family of great tits and I concluded it was probably one of them. A pheasant was calling from one of the open fields and I was surprised to hear a peacock (I think it must be kept by the farm halfway along Twelve Yards Road). I wouldn't have noticed the nest of kestrels if the youngsters had kept quiet, they shut up when the female came back to them.

There were plenty of whitethroats along Twelve Yards Road. A family of blue tits foraged in the hawthorns. The kestrel reappeared and a few minutes later a flock of 50+ lapwings rose up a couple of fields down. My first common darters of the Summer patrolled the ditches and field margins. Another pair of buzzards, another harassing carrion crow.

Lapwing, Chat Moss

Lapwings, Chat Moss

Halfway down the road I finally added yellowhammer to the year list. A nice singing male at a farm entrance. There were a few more further along, together with a pair of reed buntings in a ditch. A small grey bird foraging in a clump of cow parsley and faded poppies turned out to be a lesser whitethroat. There hadn't been many skylarks until I got to Four Lanes End, plenty thereafter. A couple of dozen swifts swooped high overhead as the wind picked up and the skies to the West darkened.

Little Woolden Moss had half a dozen willow warblers singing from the birches and alders, together with a couple of blackcaps. I kept hearing curlews but couldn't spot them. Meadow pipits soared and sang and my first yellow wagtail of the year flew over. It started to thunder and that seemed to encourage all the skylarks in the adjoining field to start singing.

A big, bottle green dragonfly caught my eye: a downy emerald and a lifer for me. There were a couple more common darters, too.

Walking down the path on the North side of the moss I could hear a quail singing in the margins of the field of Winter barley on the other side of the ditch. We seemed to keep in step with each other until we got to the end of that field. I've only ever heard quail from this field.

A hobby rose up from the far end of the moss and flew along the path opposite, rising every so often to chase a dragonfly and spooking a small group of lapwings in the process. They in turn spooked the pair of curlews I couldn't see before.

Hobby, Little Woolden Moss

Walking across the field towards the farm poly tunnels I accidentally flushed a pair of yellow wagtails. They settled back down again a few yards down so I had a proper look at them. I was surprised to see that one of them was a "Channel" wagtail with a lavender blue head and white throat. I tried to get a few record shots but it was very skittish so all I managed was a collection of blurs.

Awful record shot of the "Channel" wagtail

We seemed to be getting away with the weather, though it looked like Glazebury was copping for some filthy stuff. Swifts and house martins fed fairly high overhead while swallows skimmed low over the fields. I'd just got as far as the farmhouses when it started raining and it got progressively worse. It was pelting down by the time I got to the bridge over Glaze Brook but by then I was as wet as I was going to get and spent some time watching a female goosander and her five small ducklings.

Fifteen minutes' wait for the bus, by which time it had brightened up again and the house martins were buzzing the field by the waterworks.

Not a bad bit of a walk and four added to the year list.

More home thoughts

Juvenile blackbird

A lot of a lazy weekend. The thunderstorms the Met Office had been promising since Thursday night never materialised so I could have had that long walk across Chat Moss after all (though you can bet your life that if I'd set off I'd have been halfway down Twelve Yards Road and Ragnarok would have kicked off).

One of the juvenile blackbirds that have been making noises down the bottom of the garden joined its father on a dawn raid of the boysenberries. Another family of young spadgers called round late in the afternoon, they haven't quite mastered the business of using the bird bath so tonight's shower of rain will probably have done them a favour.

I noticed the other day that one of the young robins had started to get the first of its orange feathers. It'll only be a matter of time before its parents invite it to vacate the premises. Another youngster's been in a few times. It's already a bit belligerent, practising aggression displays from the top of the feeders at every passing goldfinch or sparrow. It made the mistake of doing it to one of its parents and was chased around the nearby rowan tree for its cheek.

Juvenile blackbird

Home thoughts

A very blustery day with most everything in the garden keeping its head down waiting for it to blow over. For the first time in a week I missed the dawn chorus, I was so tired even the cat couldn't wake me up. The great tits and blue tits are looking decidedly tatty round the edges. The young goldfinches and the baby robin are showing grown-up colours.

A change in the weather brings the first hints of a change in season. The forty-odd woodpigeons feeding on the school playing field have been joined by the first batch of Summer gulls: an adult black-headed, a third-Summer herring and a pair of adult lesser black-backs with four first Summers in tow. This evening's rain has brought plenty of earthworms up to the surface so they'll be busy awhile.

Pennington Flash

Mute swan and cygnets

I decided on a visit to Pennington Flash today, thinking that it wouldn't be busy on a cool drizzly day. I'd forgotten that the people of Leigh are hardy souls who make it worth an ice cream van's time to trade on a Winter's afternoon. Luckily, busy though it was everyone was behaving impeccably, trying as far as possible to make room for social distancing and still being friendly about it. All the hides were closed of course. An old chap I've seen a few times before stopped and said to me: "I'll be glad when they're open, I'm having withdrawal symptoms."

The usual collection of mallard, coot, mute swans and Canada geese were on the flash. Families of Canada geese with their goslings congregated in small rafts. Tufted ducks were scattered around, one female swimming across the flash midwater had half a dozen ducklings in train. There was only a handful of great crested grebes which is rather less than I'd expect usually.

Canada geese and mallard

There were small numbers of gulls about, mostly black-headed with a bunch of lesser black-backs loafing around near the sailing club and on the spit and just the one herring gull. I could only see a couple of common terns, one flying by the far shore and one loafing at the end of the spit. Small flocks of swallows and swifts hawked low over the water.

Lesser black-backs

The paths were busy so most birds were heard rather than seen. Robins, wrens and song thrushes, predictably made the biggest contribution with blackbirds and chiffchaffs not far behind. A reed warbler was singing by the Tom Edmondson Hide.

From the screen by the Ramsdale Hide I could see a family group of gadwall, the ducklings all being nearly full grown. The same could be said for the young little ringed plovers skittering amongst them under the supervision of one of the parents while the other foraged closer to the hide.

Little ringed plover

Little ringed plover

A lapwing shows us just how little a little ringed plover actually is

Carrying on along the path the trees thinned out and a couple of whitethroats made themselves known. A couple of sand martins flew overhead towards the flash, possibly to join the small unidentifiable flying objects beyond the sailing club.

I wasn't really enjoying the crowds and the hides being closed limited the birdwatching so I decided to take a walk down the Leeds and Liverpool Canal back into the town centre. Willow warblers and chaffinches sang from the woodland by the canal and three pairs of Canada geese kept an eye on their twenty-six goslings as they dawdled about on the path to the irritation of dogs and cyclists. As I neared the town centre a small flock of house martins flew overhead and then circled higher to join some swifts that seemed to have found a rich cloud of insects.

Willow warbler

Back into the town centre in time to see the 126 bus back home leave the station. Ordinarily Plan B would be to get the V1 to Sale Lane and get the 132 down to the Trafford Centre but the current emergency timetable makes that connection very iffy so I got the 34 down to Worsley, thinking that I'd have twenty minutes to explore an interesting looking footpath and get back for the next 126. Dead waste of time that was: the footpath had been comprehensively fenced in so it was nothing more than a very long ginnel going nowhere. Back at the bus stop a kestrel hunting low over the field across the road was a nice consolation prize.

The little ringed plovers bring the year list up to 140, which isn't so bad in the circumstances.

Elton Reservoir

Little tern, Elton Reservoir

Had a wander round Elton Reservoir today. It wasn't the planned outing but after a bad night's sleep I didn't feel like anything complicated. It's been an age since I've last been so I thought I'd visit while the trams were still running empty. I was hoping to add common tern to the year list.

A very dry Elton Reservoir
I'm standing where the ducks usually swim up to beg for food

Elton Reservoir was very dry. The small black-headed gull colony by the sailing club had been productive, with at least four well-grown youngsters. A few lesser black-backed gulls, a couple of herring gulls and a common gull were loafing round out on the water and taking turns at sitting on the buoys. A small flock of sand martins flew in and hawked over the water.

I'd just picked out the grey wagtail amongst the gulls' nests when I heard a tern calling. Scanning round I found a couple of common terns trying to persuade the common gull to vacate one of the buoys. Another tern flew in from that direction, distinctly smaller and with a white forehead. At first I thought it was a young common tern but it looked odd and didn't have any brown feathers. Then it swung round and I noticed the bright yellow bill. Luckily there weren't any children within earshot. It flew off stage right and I thought that was probably going to be my lot but I was wrong. The reservoir was so dry that the little bits of foreshore either side of the creek, usually a foot or two deep, were each a good three yards of pebbly beach. And there, sitting on the shoreline North of the creek were three little terns. They weren't much fussed of people so long as they kept their distance though after about quarter of an hour they were flushed by dog walkers. Again I thought that was it but I was to find them on the other side of the creek where they'd landed and were happily preening not far from a couple of families who were sat on the bank, only to be flushed again when a couple walked close by. It seems that they were perfectly happy with people who sat still but definitely skittish if anyone approached. They spent the rest of my stay fishing in the shallows, plunge diving like tiny gannets.

Little terns, Elton Reservoir

Little terns, Elton Reservoir

Little terns, Elton Reservoir

Little terns, Elton Reservoir

Nearly everywhere I've visited this Spring has had a significantly larger number of chiffchaffs than willow warblers.Here at Elton Reservoir it was quite the reverse, with about three times as many willow warblers. There weren't many blackcaps either, all being heard either on the way in or in the trees by the creek. The hedgerows were stiff with whitethroats and a family of well-grown youngsters were being fed in the yellow loosestrife by the path.

Chiffchaff, Elton Reservoir

Out in the water a pair of great crested grebes squabbled with a third adult and pairs of tufted duck and gadwall mingled with the coots. At the Southern end of the reservoir families of pied wagtails and house sparrows combed the shoreline for food. A small flock of swallows came in close to drink and hawk for midges (of which there were plenty).

If anything Withins Reservoir was even drier. Half a dozen tufted duck and a few Canada geese loafed in the mud on the Western side of the reservoir. A flock of swifts were feeding high overhead. A couple of lapwings were in the field between the reservoirs and a pair of oystercatchers noisily flew back and forth between them.

I carried on down the path past the farm to the canal. My first skylarks for what seems an age were singing in a field of sheep by the reservoir. A family of whitethroats and another of great tits flitted about along the hedgerows. A couple of garden warblers were feeding on marsh thistles by the reservoir outflow, then the male flew over into one of the big hawthorn bushes and started singing.

The view from Withins Reservoir

I walked up the canal to Radcliffe. It was fairly quiet, with the fields full of woodpigeons and Canada geese and a few lapwings being uncharacteristically low profile. Most of the small brown jobs flitting between the hawthorn hedge and the reeds in the canal were house sparrows with just a couple of reed buntings, a youngster and a singing male. Strangely there was no sight or sound of either sedge or reed warbler either along the canal or in the pond just before you get to Radcliffe town centre. A grey shape in a tree caught my eye and made me wonder how tired I must be: what I surmised was a woodpigeon was actually a heron. I'm relying all the more on my binoculars in my old age!

Flixton

Sand martins, Irlam Locks

The garden's been full of baby spadgers all day, largely invisible tweets and chirrups as they follow their parents around in the depths of the sycamores at the bottom of the garden. Every so often one of the males will supervise a youngster's visit to the bird feeders. A juvenile dunnock looking a bit dishevelled and bewildered in the Mahonia was a new arrival.

The mixed herring gull - lesser black-back pair was back again over the school playing field again this lunchtime. I don't know if they're an actual pair or just just hunting partners. I've also noticed that the first of the black-headed gulls have started drifting back, though they're not stopping here yet.

Was feeling a bit down today, a combination of a bad night's sleep and being browned off with the current restrictions. In the end I dragged myself out to Flixton for a walk. It would be an opportunity to add to my portfolio of "a warbler was here a moment ago" photos.

Song thrushes, blackbirds and wrens were belting out song in the trees around Dutton's Pond, drowning out blackcaps and chiffchaffs. The coots on the pond had a couple of almost grown juveniles in tow.

Walking down towards Jack Lane a young song thrush flew down and fossicked around in the cow parsley by the side of the path. More blackcaps and chiffchaffs, and a family of long-tailed tits fussing about in the willows on the railway embankment. A couple of reed warblers were singing in the nature reserve. One of the patches of nettles on the wayside had been stripped of leaves by red admiral caterpillars.

Red admiral caterpillar, Jack Lane

A small flock of house sparrows were dust-bathing on Jack Lane. I stopped a while to let them finish and was rewarded by a close flyover by the first swallow of the day (there was no sign of them in the paddocks closer to the railway). 

Dust-bathing house sparrows, Jack Lane

I didn't fancy doing an adventurous trip to the big metal fence at Irlam Locks so walked up to Irlam Road and followed it down to the end. There were far more swallows over the paddocks at this end and as I reached the canal a flock of a couple of dozen sand martins turned up and perched on the wires above the road. They weren't remotely bothered by me or any of the other passers-by.

Sand martin, Irlam Locks

There weren't so many black-headed gulls on the water treatment works this time and no oystercatchers. Instead there were about fifty magpies and nearly as many starlings, also a couple of pied wagtails.

I decided to wander over into Irlam just to push the boundaries a bit. Walking over the locks I noticed a family of grey wagtails feeding on the Flixton side shoreline. A few mallards and a family of coots were loafing round on the stretch of the old course of the Irwell by Ferry Road and a couple of chiffchaffs were singing by the path.

I got the bus back to the Trafford Centre and thence back home. A rewarding walk but it was nice to get home for a cup of tea.

Blackleach Country Park

Sketch map: Blackleach Country Park

Blackleach Country Park is a local nature reserve about half a mile North of Walkden town centre, a small reservoir with some young woodland joining on to playing fields to the East and South. Another of those small Pennine reservoirs that provide a pleasant hour or two's birdwatching walk.

Blackleach Reservoir

A few bus services go through Walkden town centre and the 37 bus between Manchester and Bolton goes by the country park on Bolton Road. Alternatively, Walkden Station's just over half a mile away, it's a straight walk up to the town centre and up Bolton Road.

Black-necked grebe

All the usual Greater Manchester lakes suspects can be found on the reservoir, gadwall being signifcantly more numerous in Wiinter. Common terns nest on rafts during the Summer (I've not been up there this Spring due to lockdown so I don't yet know if the rafts have been maintained and occupied this year). The reservoir is often a stopping-off point for black-necked grebes and garganeys. Whooper swans and water rails can be seen in Winter.

Common tern

There are a few paths through the light woodland North of the reservoir. Willow tits breed here and in Summer you can usually find blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers, in Winter you might a brambling or two.