Elton Reservoir

Juvenile willow warbler

There were a lot of black-headed gulls calling again from somewhere nearby when I let the cat out for her midnight patrol. I'm wondering if the gulls aren't roosting on the flat roof of one of the school buildings.

I decided on a wander round Elton Reservoir and Withins today. Elton reservoir is starting to reclaim the shoreline but it's still got a long way to go to return to normal. What was normal was the path on the North shore: muddy boots and muddy shins!

The most obvious spectacle was the 200+ sand martins hawking low over the water (and the path!) together with 100+ swifts and a few dozen house martins that tended to feed low over the trees.

Sand martin

There were a few dozen black-headed gulls about, including half a dozen juveniles, and a dozen or so lesser black-backs. There was just the one common tern today. If you don't count the large flock of mallard at the sailing club side and the large flocks of Canada geese and coots at the Withins end, and the usual family of mute swans, there wasn't much waterfowl around and just the couple of great crested grebes.

Juvenile pied wagtail

A couple of family groups of pied wagtails browsed along the water line together with a couple of little ringed plovers and a common sandpiper.

Juvenile willow warbler

Aside from a couple of blackcaps and a chiffchaff there weren't many warblers about until I got to the gulley. More blackcaps and chiffchaffs, a family of willow warblers and a sedge warbler. I found the sedge warbler in a hawthorn where I usually expect to find whitethroats, it was well down the path before I found my first whitethroat family.

Marsh ragwort

Common sandpiper

Little ringed plover

If you've ever wondered how little a little ringed plover is, that's a juvenile pied wagtail behind it

Withins Reservoir was filled back up to capacity. Ironically, this time there was just the one Canada goose and no ducks. A few hawking swallows made up the numbers.

The path from the reservoir to the canal was busy with young passerines: great tits, goldfinches, whitethroats and robins and a family of very young chiffchaffs still with their downy grey heads.

The walk down the canal into Radcliffe was surprisingly quiet. No lapwings in the fields or reed buntings along the canal margins, and only a handful each of mallard and house sparrows.

A nice walk in cool, grey weather.