Elton and Moses

Black-headed gulls and common gull, Elton Reservoir

I don't know why I've left it so long for my first visit to Elton Reservoir this year. Mind you, last week's storms derailed a lot of plans and I feel like there's a huge backlog of things that won't get done before the end of the month. I took a couple of goldcrests feeding in the back garden as a sign to stop worrying and just get on with it.

Rather than get the tram into Bury or Radcliffe I got the train to Rochdale and the 471 bus over past Bury. This gave me the chance to check out the pool just after Mills Hill Station, today it was littered with black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs.

I got off the bus and walked down to the reservoir. The woods by the path seemed more open, though that could have been an illusion caused by the extra sunlight where part of the wall to the hospital grounds was down. Robins and wrens were busy singing and there was a lot of twittering from goldfinches in the treetops.

Lesser redpoll, Elton Reservoir

The feeders at the car park were very busy, mostly with greenfinches and goldfinches. The supporting cast includes blue tits and great tits, chaffinches, house sparrows and a pair of bullfinches. A couple of pairs of redpolls flew in to feed on the nyger seeds, giving the year list the nudge it hasn't had since my visit to Barrow and bringing the total to 128. The males were in full cherry red rig-out, which somehow made them look a lot bigger than the females (when they perched side by side they were demonstrably the same size).

For all the recent rain the estuary wasn't at full capacity, with quite a lot of "beach" by the sailing club. It turned out that a lot of the water was on the path so I only walked as far as the inlet on the North shore. 

Lesser black-back, Elton Reservoir

A few hundred black-headed gulls ranging from white-headed to fully brown-hooded loafed on the shoreline or noisily chased each other around the reservoir. It was nearly midday so there was only a dozen or so lesser black-backs about and even fewer herring and common gulls. A brute of a great black-back flew in but didn't settle.

There were plenty of mallards and tufted ducks about but just a couple each of mute swans and Canada geese and a dozen teal. A grey wagtail kept calling but I couldn't see it until it obligingly flew across my field of view while I was checking that all the drake teals by the inlet had horizontal white stripes.

Elton Reservoir

I walked back and took the path along the South shore which was wet but only half a boot deep in water. Far out on the open water there was just the one great crested grebe, which is unusual, and a dozen goldeneyes with a group of tufties.

Elton Reservoir

I took the little path down to Withins Reservoir, which was quiet, and retreated back. If that stretch was that bad it would be hard work following the path down to the canal. Instead I kept to the path into Radcliffe which was mostly OK though the final hundred yards was one big puddle. All the Canada geese that weren't on the reservoirs were feeding on the field behind the stables in the company of a few dozen lapwings and half a dozen pied wagtails.

It was still only lunchtime so I went into Radcliffe and got the bus to Bolton, thinking I might have a look round one of the reservoirs round there seeing as the weather was behaving itself. The bus was quite busy and it was early kicking-out time at Little Lever School so I jumped ship and had a look round Moses Gate Country Park, something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal

I took the first available path, which took me down a gentle, muddy slope to the Bolton end of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal where half a dozen tufted ducks and a pair of mute swans were quietly feeding. The bushes were full of singing robins, dunnocks and wrens while great tits and blue tits bounced around in the trees.

Buzzard, Moses Gate Country Park

The path down to the river was steeper and would be treacherous in wet weather. The woods opened out into a clearing where carrion crows shouted defiance from the treetops at a passing buzzard. I followed the path over the bridge and walked along the river, a male goosander flying close downstream as I walked up.

River Croal, Moses Gate Country Park

The pool by the car park was heaving with black-headed gulls, mallards and Canada geese. Mixed in with the crowds of gulls were a few dozen herring gulls and lesser black-backs. It was easy to miss the goosanders, tufties, gadwall and shovelers in the milling throng. It was less easy to miss the dozen mute swans mugging little children for bread.

I called it quits after an hour's pottering about. I'd only had a quick look over about a third of the place but I needed to be home before five so I walked up to the stop for the bus into Bolton. Which is where it all went pear-shaped: the buses run every quarter of an hour, half an hour later I decided to walk down to Moses Gate Station and managed to just catch the Bolton train, which let me just catch the first Manchester train after the one I'd originally been aiming for, which got stuck at signals outside Salford Crescent… Ah well. Small beer in the scheme of things and I'd managed a couple of walks and some decent birdwatching.