Elton Reservoir

Roebuck, Radcliffe

The weather and a cat that had fallen off next door's fence put paid to the weekend's plans so having established that we weren't needing to go to the vet's I decided I needed to go for a walk (I was limping more badly than the cat and needed to get the joints working a bit). As I was setting off at lunchtime I noticed that a bee-eater had spent the morning at Withins Reservoir. It had already flown off but you never know your luck so I headed for Elton Reservoir just in case the bee-eater had drifted that way. (When I get round to this year's summary I suspect I'll be calling it: "Oh, you just missed it.")

I got the train into Manchester, connected with a very late-running Blackpool train and had five minutes to wait for the 471 at Bolton. 

For a change I got off at the Methodist Church and walked down Kingston Close to pick up the footpath that follows the brook down to the sailing club. The only whitethroat of the afternoon churred at me from the brambles as I left the greenway and cut across the field by the reservoir. The long grass was busy with meadow browns and large whites and a migrant hawker hunted the hedgerows.

Pochards and coot, Elton Reservoir

The first thing I noticed on the reservoir were the large rafts of coots. It took me a while to find any mallards, aside from half a dozen asleep on a jetty they were mostly dozing under heavily-vegetated banks away from the sailing club. There weren't a lot of Canada geese or mute swans about either, and just the one cormorant. Small groups of black-headed gulls, never more than half a dozen, were dotted around and there was a raft of a couple of dozen large gulls with lesser black-backs at one end and herring gulls at the other. Four pochards in the middle of one raft of coots was a touch of Autumn.

Walking along the mouth of the creek

I decided to walk along the path on the North side of the reservoir. It was a tad muddy and here and there I was only progressing by bloody-mindedness or stupidity. The small birds were exceptionally quiet, the occasional wren or chiffchaff complaining as I passed too close and a willow warbler calling by the creek. A sparrowhawk flying over from the electricity pylons may have contributed to the silence but even when it had been and gone there wasn't the usual twittering roll calls of flocks in the hedgerows. The mouth of the creek was thick with purple loosestrife and Himalayan balsam. Honey bees and speckled woods abounded and a brown hawker patrolled the tops of the flag irises along the bank.

Elton Reservoir 

Beyond the creek great crested grebes cruised amongst the coots and tufted ducks were dotted about the water in twos and threes. Mallards clung to the banks and try as I may I couldn't see any gadwalls. A flock of half a dozen sand martins hawking low over the river were joined by a couple of swallows and a swift.

Unusually there weren't any horses in the fields between Elton and Withins reservoirs, Canada geese grazed and loafed in their place with a couple of dozen woodpigeons and a few pied wagtails.

Withins Reservoir 

Withins Reservoir looked deserted. I'd passed a couple of birders who probably, like me, were having a look out just in case. The bee-eater had been over on the other side of the reservoir, probably best viewed from the path running from Brookbottom Road. I'd been checking out the trees as I walked round Elton Reservoir and had had as much luck finding a bee-eater as I was having here. (Nobody else had any luck after midday either.) A blackbird sang, a couple of crows cawed and woodpigeons clattered about in the treetops. A pheasant called in the field and goldfinches and greenfinches twittered about. At first sight there wasn't anything on the water but the change of angle as I walked round let me see a raft of a dozen tufted ducks and a few coots and a mallard by the far bank. The flock of sand martins followed me over and hawked over the treetops, joining the swallows coming over from the stables. Another sparrowhawk passed by, this one having a couple of tail feathers missing so I knew it was a different bird.

Poppies and corn marigolds, Withins Reservoir

It was a nice day so I wandered down towards the canal. Speckled woods and meadow browns fluttered about the field margins and hedgerows and chiffchaffs called from the elderberry bushes. A flock of house martins hawked over the field by the farmstead.

Roe deer, Radcliffe

I got to the canal and joined the towpath into Radcliffe town centre. A couple of moorhens fussed in the weeds in the canal and a flock of Canada geese grazed in the horse paddock by the canal. Over on the other side of the canal a pair of roe deer grazed in a flower-filled meadow and looked very picturesque about it.

Bolton and Bury Canal 

The field by the "Water made it wet" bridge was full of Canada geese and woodpigeons. It was very striking that there wasn't a single lapwing in any of the fields this afternoon. I bade a good day to the pair of mute swans on the other side of the bridge and went and got the tram home after a very pleasant, if a bit quiet, afternoon's birdwatching.

Reservoir overflow, Withins Reservoir