Dipping and diving

Dipper, Rochdale town centre

I'd been faffing round the house all morning so It was late lunchtime before I set off for a bit of birdwatching. I'd decided to go over to Elton Reservoir but on a whim I decided not to change trams in the city centre. Instead of going straight to Bury I'd carry on to Rochdale then get the 471 bus for a teatime stroll round the reservoir. I've been following whims and wimseys all week and they'd done well so far. As it turned out it was a really good decision.

Peregrine, Rochdale Town Hall

Peregrine, Rochdale town centre

Arriving in Rochdale I wandered over to see what, if anything was in the river by the bus station. It turned out to be three mallards, four white farmyard ducks and a pied wagtail. Over at the Town Hall there was no sign of the peregrines save their droppings on the stonework of the clock tower. I concluded it wasn't my day for them when the male flew in, settled on his usual perch, preened for a couple of minutes then shot off over towards Spotland Road.

Dipper, Rochdale town centre

I was just putting my camera away after taking a few shots of the peregrine when the bobbing of a white shape on the river caught my eye. It was the white bib of a dipper taking a breather on a rock. It struck various poses for the camera before moving on downstream and out of sight.

I got the bus over to Bury and arrived at the reservoir just as the repair crew were packing away. I'd timed my visit nicely, it was the quietest I've seen it in years. An added bonus was that I managed to walk round the reservoir without getting any mud on my boots. Amazing.

Out on the water a few swallows joined a hundred or more sand martins hawking low over the water. Most of the black-headed gulls were loafing by the sailing club, all told there were less than fifty of them. A couple of lesser black-backs and a herring gull loafed on the water.

Common scoters (male left, female right) and sand martins, Elton Reservoir

There was a pleasing variety of ducks. A couple of dozen mallard were scattered about, mostly in pairs. A pair of shovelers slept on the shoreline by the creek. There were a few small rafts of tufted ducks, perhaps forty birds in total. Quite far out in the middle of the reservoir a pair of common scoters were fast asleep. The duck woke up when a dozen goldeneye flew in, landed beside them and started getting busy with head flagging courtship displays. A single drake goosander dozed by the bank near the creek and a few teal dabbled in the shallows. The usual drake scaup took some finding and it was only when I got to the point where I was telling myself that it didn't matter if I saw it or not today when the bird bobbed up from a long dive right in front of where I was standing. The contrast between the smart adult bird of today and the rather tatty first-Winter bird he was last Autumn is remarkable.

Drake scaup, Elton Reservoir

Anything after this collection of ducks was a bonus so I was pleased to add the common sandpiper on the bank by the reeds to the year list.

A quick dekko at Withins found some mallards and a couple of Canada geese on the banks and a flock of swallows (but no sand martins) hawking low over the water.