Elton Reservoir

Ruddy duck, Elton Reservoir

I was only half in the mood for a walk today. In the end I decided to spend an hour or so at Elton Reservoir to see if yesterday's common scoter had decided to linger (there have been a few dropping in on reservoirs around Greater Manchester and I keep missing them). I decided I'd just have a wander along the South shore (I didn't fancy a mud bath) then get the bus on Bury Road; if I felt energetic I could take it to Ringley and have a walk through Outwood and if not I could get off at Radcliffe tram station.

I decided that the first garden dragonfly of the year — a common hawker in the back garden — was a good omen. Seeing a kingfisher shooting across the Irwell as I was passing on the tram was another.

Mute swan and cygnets

The usual suspects were on the reservoir: a couple of dozen mallard, the mute swan family, twenty or so black-headed gulls and the best part of a hundred coot. Pied wagtails skittered about the water margins and house martins hawked over the water. The juvenile great crested grebes are nearly full-grown now. A couple of common terns spent more time noisily flying about than fishing.

Juvenile great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

There are much worse things in this world than having a sit down by a picturesque reservoir on a sunny afternoon. I was thinking this as I was concluding that all the black dots on the reservoir were coots. Then a few more dots floated into view as they swam out into the water from a small bight on the North shore. A few more coots and half a dozen tufted ducks. And something else.

First sighting: ruddy duck, coot and tufted duck

My first ruddy duck for eleven years!  It drifted slowly closer, diving for food every so often along the way.

Common tern

The terns also came in closer as they did circuits of the reservoir. In the end the ruddy duck kept about a third the way out from shore. A fine male showing very well.

Coot and ruddy duck

I was of two minds about logging the sighting (I'm not convinced of the need to cull this species). I did in the end, leaving it to the judgement of site moderators whether or not to suppress it.

Back home on the tram desperate for a pot of tea.