Radcliffe

Little ringed plover, Elton Reservoir

It had been a cold night and what I thought was a hard frost was actually a thin dusting of snow. But it turned out to be a bright, if cold, sort of a day so I decided to catch up with things round Elton Reservoir.

The foliage on the roses in the back garden is providing cover for the birds now but I know they're still out there by the speed the feeders are getting emptied. Most mornings start with a bunch of magpies chasing each other round the trees on the railway embankment, I assume these are non-breeding birds establishing their ranks in the gang. There's a pair on the nest in one of the alders across the road and the usual flurry of activity in the old crow's nest at the corner, this year mostly involving a pair of jackdaws and a rook. I don't think this nest is ever productive, perhaps it's used as a decoy to divert attention from active nests. The two pairs of magpies at Trafford Park Station have made a start on five nests so far though most of the activity is centring round the one that was used last year.

Snow on them thar hills, the view from Humphrey Park Station

I got the train into Manchester and the tram into Bury then got the 471 to Elton Reservoir. Walking down from Buller Street to the sailing club the trees were full of singing robins, wrens and chaffinches yet a coal tit managed to sing over the lot of them. A chiffchaff chipped in every so often from somewhere on the green lane down the bank. Most of the feeders had been taken down at the car park but the ones that were left were keeping a lot of blue tits and great tits busy.

Herring gulls, lesser black-backs and carrion crow, Elton Reservoir

The mud bank by the sailing club was almost covered with loafing gulls, mostly herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs and black-headed gulls. Pairs of mallards dozed and a pair of teal fed on the nearest bank. Out on the water there were a couple of dozen coot and nearly a hundred very noisy black-headed gulls. For some reason the great crested grebes had taken against the raft of tufted ducks by the creek and every so often one would launch itself in their direction with a great flurry of splashing about and calling. The tufted ducks took not a blind bit of notice.

Elton Reservoir, by the sailing club

I took advantage of the recent dry weather to walk around the northern edge of the reservoir. Remarkably there were just the two small patches of muddy puddles, I'm not sure if it was the more remarkable there were any at all or that there was only two. The weather kept fine and mostly sunny though it felt cold whenever the sun went in and the wind picked up every so often and felt decidedly icy. I was surprised by how few people were about.

Elton Reservoir

There had been reports of a swallow and some goldeneyes and little ringed plovers first thing. I kept an eye out but this time of year birds are on the move and what you see at a site first thing will likely be different to what you'll see at lunchtime or teatime.

Teal, little ringed plover and pied wagtail, Elton Reservoir

A few pied wagtails, mostly males, fed at the water's edge, usually by themselves, occasionally accompanied by pairs of teal. I was standing at the "wader point" at the far side of the creek looking back at the sailing club when I noticed something flying low over the water. A swallow feeding with eight sand martins. A little further along a few pied wagtails were feeding around a dozen dabbling teal. A couple of small objects skittering around on the pebbles were a pair of little ringed plovers.

Little ringed plover, Elton Reservoir

There were no goldeneyes but two out of three wasn't bad going.

Somebody was getting snowed on

I walked down to Withins. I checked out the fields for wheatears; no joy today, just lapwings and carrion crows. A few more clouds rolled in and someone North of Bury was copping for a snowstorm but it stayed sunny enough for the remainder of the walk.

Goldeneye, Withins Reservoir

Withins Reservoir was busy with birds. A pair of mute swans grazed the bank while pairs of,  Canada geese patrolled the water. A cormorant and a great crested grebe were busy fishing. The goldeneyes that weren't on Elton Reservoir were on here, a dozen birds busy whistling and head-bobbing at each other over in the far corner.

I walked down the path into Radcliffe. As I was passing the farmhouses across the lawn what I took at first to be yet more creaking of hawthorn branches in the wind turned out to be a pair of Mediterranean gulls feeding with the black-headed gulls and jackdaws on the field of sheep. I wonder if this is the same pair that bred last year on Lowercroft Reservoir.

Bolton and Bury Canal

It was only when I was looking down at the mallards on the canal that I realised I hadn't seen a moorhen anywhere on this walk, which is very unusual. Still, I'd seen plenty else and the swallow and martins had kept the year list ticking over.

Elton Reservoir

Watergrove

Red-throated diver

I hadn't intended going on a walk. I've been a bit low energy all week, struggling to adjust to the cat's new feeding hours. A plan forged at daybreak was thwarted when I noticed the train I intended taking had been cancelled (Transpennine Express is being very unlucky with staff absences this year). So I got some kip and had another think. And another… And had gone no further than the kitchen by mid-afternoon so I dragged myself out to Wardle to see if the red-throated diver was still about.

Walking along Ramsden Road

I got the 458 bus from Littleborough Station to Wardle and walked up Ramsden Road to the reservoir. There were plenty of robins, greenfinches and woodpigeons singing in the village and more jackdaws knocking about than you could shake a stick at.

Watergrove Reservoir

There wasn't a lot out on the water. A couple of herring gulls flew low over and on over the hills. About half a dozen mallards drifted round the far edges and a great crested grebe lurked by the sailing club. Three teals swimming into the tree roots on the far bankside were a bit of a surprise. I've got into the habit of starting to think I'm having no luck and the diver's moved on then having another look out and finding the bird showing nicely dead centre in my field of view. Today was no exception. It's a handsome bird.

Red-throated diver

Red-throated diver

Red-throated diver

The plan had been to see the diver then return down to Wardle for the bus back into Rochdale thence home. I don't really know why I did a full circuit of the reservoir. I'd felt a bit overdressed and taken off my body warmer on the way up from Wardle but by the time I'd got round to Higher Slack Brook the weather had turned and I was happy to put it back on again. The clouds rolled in, the mists enveloped the wind turbines and the breeze had picked up and taken a definite edge.

A couple of skylarks sang in the breeze and magpies, woodpigeons and jackdaws fed on the grassy slope down from the reservoir. Once the path got into the lightly wooded areas by the hillside chaffinches, wrens and robins started to make themselves known. The trees reached the waterline here, providing cover for moorhens and coots.

Watergrove Reservoir

It was peak dog-walking time so I spent quite a bit of my time saying hello to friendly dogs. I got into conversation with one chap about the diver and I showed him some of my photos of the diver and he showed me photos of the young herons on the heronry in Alexandra Park in Oldham.

Higher Slack Brook

Moving on into Higher Slack Brook there were more small birds in the trees, mostly great tits with a very few blue tits and long-tailed tits. My moving out of the way to let a jogger go past disturbed a treecreeper I hadn't noticed on the tree trunk next to me. It flew all of two trees away and carried on with its business.

I went past the windsurfing club where some filming was taking place and joined the path running parallel to Ramsden Road. A great spotted woodpecker flew into the conifers on the other side of the road and a small flock of fieldfares flew over at treetop height.

By Watergrove Reservoir

Coming back into the open area and rounding the bend I could see most of the reservoir again. The diver took some finding, it was well away from where I last saw it and way over on the other side. A heron flew in, perched on a pole, decided it didn't like the couple of very yappy dogs running along the bank and flew off again. A second calendar year great black-back flew in and settled mid-water to loaf awhile.

Looking down towards Wardle

Walking down to the car park a song thrush joined the chorus of blackbirds and chaffinches in the trees and a single redwing was perched on a tree top calling to itself. As I walked down the path that joins Lower House Lane a coal tit joined in and a pair of great tits made noisy contact calls as they fed in the hawthorns by the path.

I got down into Wardle with ten minutes to wait for the 458 bus to Littleborough Station via Hollingworth Lake and thence home to find the cat sitting in the hall asking what time I called this then. I felt the better for having had the walk though I suspect having my tea so late isn't going to be improving my body clock any.

Crosby

Black swan, Crosby Marine Lake

It was one of those days where the weather forecast seemed to be hedging its bets so I had a trip out to Crosby Marine Lake on the grounds that it's an undemanding toddle and you're never more than ten minutes away from shelter. As it happened, a gloomy morning in Manchester became a bright sunny day on Merseyside so I could enjoy the walk without any dramas.

I'd changed trains at Hunts Cross where three singing greenfinches were only just managing to shout over a robin and a coal tit. I very much commend suburban railway stations as places for an undemanding bit of birdwatching. Back at Humphrey Park I'm approaching the conclusion that I've underestimated the local sparrow population: I'd left a dozen in my back garden, the family in the steamroller's rambling roses were at least a dozen strong, there was more than a dozen spadgers feeding under the Liverpool-bound platform at the station and at least another half a dozen shouting the odds in the privets at the end of the Manchester platform. I don't know if they're all coming to feed in my garden, it would explain much if they are.

Crosby Marine Lake

I got off the train at Waterloo and walked down to the marine lake. For all that it was lunchtime it was fairly quiet. There wasn't a lot on the lake bar a mute swan, a couple of herring gulls and a little egret feeding on the shore by the dunes.

Herring gulls, Crosby Marine Lake

The pond was busier, mostly with herring gulls, mallards and tufted ducks. A few coots and Canada geese made up the numbers at the deep end while a couple of swans loafed around in the middle.

A lady stopped me and asked me how long there have been little egrets here. I told her I'd seen my first one here just over ten years ago. "I thought I was hallucinating the first time I saw one here," shed said, "Just like seeing a black swan here." Well, yes, quite so.

Mute swan and black swan, Crosby Marine Lake

Half a dozen skylarks sang and there were more of them bouncing round the dunes. Meadow pipits were a bit thinner on the ground but a couple were singing from the fenced-off bit of rough ground. There was a noisy hubhub of starlings in the stand of sea buckthorns by the dunes but they were fiendishly difficult to see as whatever they were up to they were doing it near the bottom of the buckthorns in the centre. A couple of stonechats were hunting from the tops of the bushes until they flew off to try their luck somewhere quieter.

Crosby Beach

Out on the beach most of the gulls were herring gulls with a handful of lesser black-backs and a couple of passing great black-backs. Aside from a couple of curlews and a couple of oystercatchers all the waders were redshanks. A couple of shelducks flew by close to the surf.

I had a nosy through the wire fence at Seaforth Nature Reserve. There were linnets, greenfinches and house sparrows in the bushes. On the open grass, besides a lot of rabbits, there were a few pairs of Canada geese and shelducks. I'm probably a week or two early for wheatears and wagtails here bit it didn't stop me looking for them. There wasn't a lot on the open water, just handfuls of shelducks and curlews, but there was the usual crowd scene of birds loafing on the island opposite the hide, a mixture of coots, cormorants, Canada geese and curlews. There were also a few mallards, teal and black-tailed godwits but they didn't lend themselves so easily to glib alliteration.

A couple of chiffchaffs were singing from the willows by the boatyard, alongside a robin, a blackbird and my first whitethroat of the year, a couple of weeks earlier than I was expecting.

I debated moving on to another site for a wander round but decided instead to use the daily Saveaway I'd bought to do a bit of exploring by bus and found that the 47 bus from Liverpool to Crossens stops opposite Long Lane in Thornton, just ten minutes' walk from Lunt Meadows. It also gets within a short walk to Altcar Moss, which is worth bearing in mind when the geese are coming in in the Autumn.

Mosses

Chaffinch, Chat Moss

It was a sunny Saturday, I didn't want to go anywhere near the city centre so I had a trog across the Irlam mosses.

The bottom of Astley Road was closed for roadworks, which you would think would make for a nice, quiet walk but it seemed busier with cars than on a usual Saturday. The hedgerows at the bottom were busy with singing robins and chaffinches while pairs of blackbirds, blue tits and goldfinches quietly fed in the bushes. The barley growing in the fields was just high enough to make the dozens of woodpigeons not particularly conspicuous but not so high to hide any partridges you might hope would be out there. I've had no luck at all with grey partridges so far this year. A couple of fields away a buzzard was perched high up in a tree half-hidden by opening leaves.

Irlam Moss

The hedgerows by the Jack Russell's gate were teeming with greenfinches, with at least three singing males. There was a dozen or so yellowhammers but they were all keeping undercover, feeding at the bases of the hedges. The usual male kestrel was about, just as I passed the gate it plunged close by into the field on the other side of the road and landed with an audible snap like a brittle twig breaking. It then flew off with an ex field vole.

Chat Moss by Four Lanes End

The stretch from the motorway to Four Lanes End was a lot quieter. There were a few chaffinches and robins in the hedgerows by the motorway and a couple of magpies in the field close by. The only bird out on the fields of turf was a heron which flew in, landed, settled to preen for a minute or two then flew off.

A passing heron, Chat Moss

Today's plan was to have a quick look in Little Woolden Moss then walk down Twelve Yards Road and into Irlam for the bus home. As it happened I spent a while on Little Woolden Moss as there was quite a bit about today. Robins, chiffchaffs and blue tits sang in the trees by the entrance. There were a few linnets and meadow pipit's in the open areas, all keeping very low profiles. A couple of pairs of Canada geese loafed on the bunds and small groups of mallards dabbled in the pools. Over on the far side from the path an altercation between a pair of lapwings flushed a couple of teal that had been on one of the small pools.

Little Woolden Moss

I had a chat with a passing birdwatcher, he'd found a redshank but had no sign of the usual curlews, I'd seen the curlews but not the redshanks. He said he'd been on the volunteer work details this week and a couple of times they'd accidentally flushed a short-eared owl that had been roosting here. My chances of seeing it on a sunny Saturday lunchtime were vanishingly remote, still it's good to know it's around. I had no desire to go badgering round after it any more than I go nosing round the barn owl nests I know about. The welfare of the birds is infinitely more important than my getting to see them.

Twelve Yards Road

I wandered back and down onto Twelve Yards Road. There were a few chaffinches in the hedges though just a tiny fraction of the Winter flocks here. Skylarks and meadow pipits sang above the fields. At first sight there were a couple of dozen lapwings dotted round in the fields. A more careful slow scan of the fields revealed a lot more in the longer grasses, there were upwards of a hundred pairs along this stretch of road. 

Chat Moss

There were plenty of woodpigeons about, mostly in small flocks dividing their time between feeding in the fields and loafing in the hedgerow trees. A buzzard sat in a tree over by Hephzibah Farm while another pair courted high over the fields by the railway. The sun had brought out the butterflies with peacocks, commas and small tortoiseshells chasing each other along the waysides.

The path continuing North from Cutnook Lane

It was still only mid-afternoon so I thought I'd explore the footpath that carries on from the end of Cutnook Lane. Its junction with Twelve Yards Road always looks a bit unsavoury which is why I've not bothered in the past but today I thought I'd give it a go. As it is, once you get past the first ten yards of litter it's quite a nice path that runs past the bit of wet land you get tantalising glimpses of from Twelve Yards Road. Today there were just a few mallards and black-headed gulls about. The trees were busy with singing robins, wrens and chiffchaffs while pairs of blue tits, coal tits and long-tailed tits foraged in the bushes.

Chat Moss

I carried on to the crossroads junction which the footpaths that run parallel to Twelve Yards Road. I decided not to go any further today, looking at the map and the terrain this area is worth exploring as a walk in its own right rather than trying to tag it onto the end of this one, there's a lot more to it than I'd supposed. I spent a couple of minutes watching the buzzards dance round each other in the air and a kestrel hunting over the clearing by the crossroads then made a move.

As I walked back a couple of blackbirds and a song thrush sang in the trees and a mistle thrush sang from one of the birch trees by the fishery on Cutnook Lane.

By one of those chances that don't work if you plan for them I arrived at the bus stop with five minutes to wait for the 100 bus to Irlam Station so I'd have ten minutes to wait for the train home. It had been a very good few hours' walk and it was nice to see so much about.

Flixton

Heron, Dutton's Pond
I don't know if it had a fishing permit

I'd pencilled in Saturday for catching up with my sleep but I was flagging by the end of yesterday's walk and this morning I decided I didn't have the energy for the outing I had planned if the cat woke me before six and over the course of a pot of tea I ditched all the alternative plans until it got to the point where getting past the front gate was looking overambitious. Anyway, nature ran its course, I had a mid-morning nap, woke up feeling like the wreck of the Hesperus, had another cup of tea and got the 256 bus into Flixton for a walk round Wellacre Country Park to try and get my mojo back.

Wellacre Wood

Wellacre Wood was quietly busy. A couple of robins and wrens sang but the rest of the birds quietly went about their business. There was a constant patter as bits of alder catkins dropped to the woodland floor, most of them helped along the way by a flock of goldfinches feeding on them in the treetops. A couple of pairs of long-tailed tits bounced by, stopping to strike poses for the camera and doing a runner whenever the camera got them in focus. They do that a lot, I guess they have to make their own entertainment. The new hawthorn leaves made dense splashes of green in the undergrowth and excellent hiding places for great tits and dunnocks waiting for me to move on out of the way 

There haven't been many black-headed gulls round our way lately, they were made up for by the crowd of them noisily feeding on the sewage works at Irlam Locks.

Jack Lane

The paths into Jack Lane were baked dry with the recent weather but the water levels in the pools and reedbeds looked normally high. Robins and chiffchaffs sang while a moorhen and a water rail shrieked at each other in the reedbed. I could hear a ring-necked parakeet but took ages to find it, finally spotting it low down in a stand of drowned willows by the path by the railway embankment.

Jack Lane

I walked on down to Dutton's Pond. The trees along the embankment were busy with great tits and chaffinches and a couple of chiffchaffs sang from the taller trees. Another warbler flew in and bounced about in a small alder tree without calling or singing. It didn't look like a chiffchaff, its wings were longer and it had a lemon yellow cast to its chest but it was only when it had moved round so I had the sun behind me that I could confidently confirm it was a willow warbler by its pale brown legs. I'll get more confident with the ID later in the season, about the same time as I'll be baffling myself trying to separate blackcaps and garden warblers by small snatches of song.

Dutton's Pond

A couple of pairs of mallards and a pair of moorhens were feeding on Dutton's Pond together with a heron that seemed to have made a point of standing next to a "Members' fishing only" notice.

Buzzard, Fly Ash Hill

I bobbed under the railway onto Fly Ash Hill. The trees by the subway were busy with spadgers and great tits. As I walked up the path I accidentally flushed a buzzard that was perching by the railway line, it flew off towards the locks. 

Rewilding Britain
I'm getting increasingly tetchy about over-dense tree plantings like this on already-established wild places.

There wasn't so much about in the open country on the top of the hill, it's a bit late for meadow pipits and a bit early for whitethroats. Looking over the brow down into the lagoons I could see a couple of mallards and a moorhen and a few magpies flew by. There were more magpies, together with a couple of carrion crows and a pheasant, down in the horse paddocks.

Walking down Fly Ash Hill

I walked down the hill to Merseyview with greenfinches, goldfinches and collared doves singing in the hawthorns and a pair of bullfinches quietly disbudding a wild cherry.

I had a look on the river before going to get my bus back. A pair of mallards and a pair of goosanders loafed on the water by the bridge.

Not the planned outing but a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.

Southport

Skylark, Crossens Outer Marsh

It was more than high time I had a visit to Marshside and Crossens. It was a sunny day, the trains were behaving themselves and lunchtime found me at the bottom of Marshside Road with the remaining bits of hedges chock-a-block with starlings and spadgers.

Starlings, Marshside

The fields either side of the road were busy. Mallards, gadwalls, teal and wigeon dabbled in the wet bits while on the drier bits pairs of Canada geese nursed territories in neatly spaced out grids. With the turn of the season we were down to dozens of black-tailed godwits and lapwings, the latter including a few pairs already chasing crows and jackdaws out of territories they'll be nesting in. A few little egrets were gadding about and over in the distance towards Polly's Pool a great white egret was making itself conspicuous with its characteristic leaning bus stop long-necked stance. Skylarks and meadow pipits were in full song. I had a few goes at trying to get a picture of a meadow pipit doing its parachute drop flight song but had to admit defeat in the end.

Gadwall, Marshside

A few shovelers, tufted ducks and dabchicks were on the Junction Pool with just a handful of pintails.

Walking down towards Sandgrounders my first willow warbler of the year gave a quick snatch of song from the bushes on the sand plant before being drowned out by chiffchaffs and a robin. A Cetti's warbler sang by the gate opposite the sand plant. I've not heard one here before and I was surprised it could find enough cover for a territory given how much strimming's been going on.

There weren't the vast numbers of birds in front of Sandgrounders that there were in mid-Winter but there was plenty of variety. Redshanks, ruffs and a couple of little ringed plovers fed on the muddy islands, keeping their distance from a pair of loafing great black-backs. Mallards, pintails, teal and shovelers dabbled in the pools. Godwits and wigeon fed in the damp grass and more Canada geese stood sentry on their territories. The large breeding colony of black-headed gulls of just a few years ago seems to have disappeared.

Pintail, Marshside

Teal dabbling, Marshside

Little egret, Marshside

The roadworks are still going on on this stretch of the Marine Drive so it was a nice quiet walk down to Crossens. A couple of pairs of avocets flew into Marshside Inner Marsh, there were more on the pools on the outer marsh. There were a few family parties of pink-footed geese flying about, there were rather a lot more of them out in the long grass on the salt marsh.

Pink-footed geese, Marshside Outer Marsh

A cloud of a few hundred golden plovers flew up, wheeled around Marshside and settled down onto Crossens Inner Marsh. I think this was a prelude to moving on rather than a predator response, not even the lapwings and redshanks joined them in taking flight.

The change in season was marked on Crossens Outer Marsh. There were plenty of meadow pipits and skylarks but all in pairs, not flocks. Pairs of shelducks were dotted about the smaller pools and hollows. The only wigeons and teal were on The Sluice, and just a couple of dozen at that. There were a few dozen pink-feet feeding on the grazing, the younger birds looking dark compared to the frosty-fringed adults. A flash of orange beak in the sunlight amongst a bunch of geese in the mid-distance got my hopes up but turned out to be a pair of greylags.

Pink-footed geese, Crossens Outer Marsh

Sheldrake, Crossens Outer Marsh

The regular snow goose and Todd's Canada goose had been reported from Banks Marsh. Looking at the details and seeing how far out in the marsh the snow goose had been seen I reckoned that I had as much chance of seeing it from the wildfowlers' pull-in on Crossens Marsh as I would from Banks. There were white shapes amongst the hundreds of geese far out on the marsh and I had to fight the heat haze to make out what they were: shelducks and little egrets and the strong light bouncing off the chests of Canada geese and the backsides of pink-feet. Much to my surprise I found the Todd's Canada goose, its pencil neck giving it and oddly angular appearance at this distance.

Crossens Outer Marsh

I had a bit of a wander into Banks but the change of angle didn't help me spot the snow goose. No matter, it had been a very agreeable walk, there had been plenty to see and the pair of little ringed plovers had brought the year list to a frankly astonishing 150.