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!