Elton Reservoir

First-Winter great crested grebe, Elton Reservoir

It was a nice morning so I thought I'd go over to Elton Reservoir for a walk. Getting over there's very straightforward but today was one of those days so the train into Manchester was stuck at signals for quarter of an hour after a freight train broke down at Oxford Road then the tram up to Bury broke down halfway there. I decided to get off the next tram at Radcliffe and walk up the canal to the Reservoir, just in case anything else happened.

Bolton and Bury Canal

The last time I walked down the canal it was very quiet. Not so this time, the fields over on the other side were full of Canada geese and black-headed gulls, the mallards and moorhens fed on the canal and the hawthorns along the towpath were full of robins and mixed tit flocks. A couple of skylarks and pied wagtails flew over and a heron was fishing among the reeds.

Sleepy teal, by the Bolton & Bury Canal

There had been weekend reports of a bar-tailed godwit and another report first thing this morning. I kept an eye out for it as I've had no luck seeing one this year, and I didn't have any luck today. No sign in any of the flooded fields and the little pool that's featured in some of the weekend's photos had plenty of teal but no barwit. Ah well, I'll have to have a trip to the seaside before year's end.

It had been a lovely morning but the wind had picked up and was rolling in some filthy looking clouds. I walked up the lane to the reservoir and walked along the Southern margin.

There were plenty of coots and black-headed gulls about and the family of mute swans lurked over by the other shore. A handful of lesser black-backs and a couple of great black-backs were bathing in the middle of the water. As usual the great crested grebes fed close to this side, giving very nice views as they don't give a monkey's about passing walkers. The juveniles are coming into their first-Winter plumage now with russet sides and black-striped heads and necks, looking like extras from the fall of Robespierre.

Great crested grebe, Elton Reservoir

Further along there was a small raft of tufted ducks, busily preening their bellies, and a couple of dabchicks whinnied from the creek. Six or seven jays quietly flitted about collecting acorns (do they remember where each other bury their caches of acorns I wonder). About this time the rain started in earnest and there wasn't anything any nicer looking to be blown in so I decided to take the hint and not complete the circuit of the reservoir.

I walked down towards Ainsworth Road past an empty Withins Reservoir and horse paddocks full of magpies, jackdaws and black-headed gulls. Then the bus into Bury and a circuitous journey back home in the rain.