Hollingworth Lake

Male redstart

The weather looked better North of Manchester so I went over to Hollingworth Lake for a walk. There had been plenty of reports of passage migrants recently and a first-Summer Caspian gull has been seen daily over the past week, which was encouraging.

The journey in was made difficult by a cancelled train so I arrived later than planned and the promenade was extremely busy so I began to wonder if I'd made a mistake.

There were plenty of gulls about — mostly black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs — but they seemed very unsettled. (I found out later they'd been disturbed at the nature reserve end by workmen with strimmers, I was all too aware what was disturbing them at the Promenade end and my hope that they'd be savaged by Canada geese was all in vain). One of the large gulls that settled on one of the buoys looked odd: a long-legged juvenile with a very pale head. I got my bins on it: juvenile herring gull plumage, white head, dark nape, long dark bill (appearing the longer because of the relatively small, rounded head). The bill looked to have a pale tip, Sandwich tern style. I'm pretty sure that was the Caspian gull, sadly I didn't get much more of a chance to study it as it moved on with the others.

Hollingworth Lake from the promenade

I stopped to have a chat with a chap who'd seen the Caspian gull a few times and had just had an unsuccessful hunt for a yellow wagtail on the nature reserve. He mentioned that he'd seen some redstarts, whinchats and spotted flycatchers along the path up from the old water activties centre, which encouraged my flagging spirits. "Look out for the 'Beware of the bull' sign," he advised.

The trees along the path to the hide were full of a mixed tit flock — a dozen or more long-tailed tits, half a dozen each of great tit and blue tit, two or three chiffchaffs and a coal tit. A few goldfinches and chaffinches were bobbing around, too, but didn't associate with the tit flock. A few dozen lapwings flew back to the nature reserve area but were very skittish.

Hollingworth Lake nature reserve area

By the time I got to the hide a lot of the gulls had come back and were loafing along the shoreline. Most were black-headed but there were a dozen lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls amongst them. One gull asleep in the crowd my eye: a big juvenile herring gull with a very pale head and neck. Was this the Caspian gull back? It had its head tucked deep into its back feathers and most of the bird was hidden by a couple of other gulls so I couldn't be sure. Neither could the chap who joined me in the hide. Eventually it woke up and we were disappointed: a most herring gull-like beak, pale at the base and dark at the tip. Definitely a herring gull, albeit a big tall one. We consoled ourselves by finding a nice common sandpiper. We also wondered about the ethics of deciding those three house martins that just flew past were really Wilson's petrels and concluded we'd stay on the side of the angels. I left him to it, hoping I'd take the jinx off it for him. He'd also mentioned that he'd had redstarts up the lane so I kept my fingers crossed.

Loafing gulls

A bird I was unable to identify was calling from the poplars by the old water activties centre, and for once it wasn't a great tit. I spent so long trying to spot it a nuthatch came down to see what I was up to.

I've always passed by the lane up from the centre, an oversight I won't be repeating in future. Robins, willow warblers and blackbirds foraged in the hawthorn hedgerows and woodpigeons clattered about in the trees. A small party of swallows flew high overhead and three swifts flew past at treetop height. I got to the fields with the signs. A copse of hawthorns was busy with woodpigeons and blackbirds and every so often a willow warbler would catch my eye but nothing to add to the year list.

Male redstart

I turned and started back down the lane whence I came when something caught my eye on the other side of the field. A bird flitted out of the hawthorn bush there, caught a fly and disappeared back into the bush. Another willow warbler? Check it and see. Out it popped again and the flash of red as it turned in mid air and retreated back in the bush was unmistakable. A female redstart. I spent a minute or two scanning the bush to see if I could see it when another redstart, a male this time, darted out and perched on a fence post. After striking a few poses it retreated back into the bush, only to re-emerge, hawk for a few insects then dive back in. A couple of willow warblers flew over and settled in. I was watching where they were going when another bird made a sortie, caught something and flew down into the dense foliage lower down in the bush. It repeated this a couple of times, giving me just good enough views to identify it as a spotted flycatcher. From a birdwatching perspective this was a very productive bush! Coincidentally (or not) this is the first time in a couple of weeks a horsefly hasn't had a nibble at me while I've been strolling round the damp bits of Greater Manchester.

Male redstart

The action-packed hawthorn bush, with willow warbler.

I bumped into the chap from the hide on my way back towards Smithybridge and we had a chat while we waited for the bus to Rochdale (I wasn't for risking the trains again). It turns out I'm not the only one who's been working out permutations of trains and buses and concluding the bearded vulture's out of reach.

As the bus meandered up to Wardle I recalled that one of the plans for Spring had been a stroll round Watergrove Reservoir so I put it on my reminder list for later this year.

By the West bank of Hollingworth Lake