Elton Reservoir

Whinchat, Withins Reservoir

There had been a passage of little gulls over the weekend, with half a dozen of them on Elton Reservoir yesterday which I assumed was a guarantee they wouldn't be there today: this time of year little gulls on passage are definitely passing by. I wasn't wrong but I still had a very productive walk round.

I'd got the train to Bolton then the 471 to Bury, getting off at the Methodist church for a change and walking down Kingston Close to the greenway to Bury. I walked down a little and followed the path that runs alongside the little brook that empties into the reservoir by the car park. The bushes were full of singing chiffchaffs, great tits and wrens while robins, blue tits and spadgers quietly fed in the undergrowth.

Elton Reservoir

The water's still low on the reservoir and the paths are bone dry and concrete hard. There were perhaps three dozen black-headed gulls out on the water, trying hard to sound like more. Most of them were in a raft by the sailing club. Further out there were half a dozen each of herring gulls and lesser black-backs, dotted about in ones and twos. A couple of dozen mallards were all in pairs, as were a similar number of Canada geese, but there was just the one tufted duck to be seen and just half a dozen coot. A dozen swallows fed low over mid-water, the clouds of midges being visible from the shore.

Willow warbler, Elton Reservoir

The gulley, reduced almost to a shallow drain, was thick with warblers. Half a dozen willow warblers sang from the willows, appropriately enough, a couple of chiffchaffs and blackcaps sang from the depths of hawthorns and a couple of whitethroats sang from the hawthorn hedge beside the field to the North. Blue tits, great tits, wrens and robins made up the numbers with a few blackbirds and a couple of singing reed buntings.

By the gulley at Elton Reservoir

A couple of great crested grebes cruised around the mouth of the creek but didn't appear to be a pair.

By Elton Reservoir, adding to my portfolio of "There was a warbler there a moment ago" photos

A pair of little ringed plovers beachcombed along the wader point with a couple of pied wagtails. It was lovely to see them close enough to be able to tell the pair of plovers apart, the female having a browner, nearly broken, ring across her breast.

Female little ringed plover, Elton Reservoir

Male little ringed plover, Elton Reservoir

Pied wagtail, Elton Reservoir

There was a lot of grass strimming going on on the South shore of the reservoir so I carried on walking round and joined the path to Withins Reservoir. I stopped awhile to scan the fields here, this time of year there's a good chance of finding a wheatear or two. There were blackbirds, jackdaws and lapwings and a pair of robins the male of which flew down every so often to offer its mate a bit of food, but no wheatears.

There was, however, a rather nice whinchat smack in the middle of the "wheatear" field on the corner.

Whinchat, Withins Reservoir

Whinchat, Withins Reservoir

There's not a lot of cover about here unless you're three foot tall and look like a fencepost so I was cautious about getting a photo. I needn't have worried, it spotted me and came over to have a look. For many birds humans are just another big clumsy animal that disturbs insects as they tramp about.

There wasn't much on Withins Reservoir save a couple of Canada geese and a pair of great crested grebes.

Pond by the path to Starling Way

I walked back and past the stables, which were already noisy with swallows, and walked up the footpath up to the new housing estate on Starling Way for the bus into Bury and a circuitous route home.