Bury bumper bundle

Juvenile stonechat, Holcombe Moor

I've had a couple of phalarope-free years so the news that the grey phalarope that had arrived at Elton Reservoir yesterday evening had decided to linger prompted me to head thataway this morning.

Grey phalarope, Elton Reservoir

It was a bright, fresh morning and the low sun turned all the cormorants and mallards loafing on the sailing club jetty into silhouettes. As I scanned the reservoir for the phalarope I hoped I wouldn't only be seeing it in silhouette. There were rafts of coots and tufted ducks, a few herring gulls and black-headed gulls, a couple of great crested grebes… The phalarope was an easy spot a hundred yards out from the little bay by the creek, like a half-sized black-headed gull turning circles as it picked at midges on the water. Luckily I was standing at a point where the sun gave a modelling light on the bird. As I moved nearer the creek the bird was marginally closer but the sun was directly behind it.

Elton Reservoir 

I decided not to do a circuit of the reservoir, the paths were plenty muddy on this side of the creek, Heaven knows what they would be like on the other side. I was having trouble with a sore knee that wouldn't be helped by slip-sliding about in deep mud so I decided to head back into Bury, get the 474 towards Ramsbottom and give the knee a proper workout on Holcombe Moor.

Luckily the 471 to Bury runs every ten minutes so I only had a half hour wait for the next bus. I just missed the 474 so caught the 472 and went the long way via Ramsbottom and got off at the Hare and Hounds literally thirty seconds before the next 474 arrived. Still, it beat hanging round Bury Interchange for twenty minutes!

Holcombe Old Road 

I walked up Holcombe Old Road and headed for Holcombe Hill. Cobbled roads are a nuisance to walk on on the flat but they're definitely better than a smooth inclined plane going uphill. All the old pack roads were awash with streams of water pouring from the hillside after the past few days' rain. A mixed tit flock — blue tits, great tits, a goldcrest and a nuthatch — bounced around in hedgerows that were heaving with singing robins. Red admirals and speckled woods joined the hundreds of bees and flies feeding on the ivies festooned on the trees.

Walking up Holcombe Hill 

I turned onto Moor Bottom Road and onto the path that goes up Holcombe Hill to the Peel Monument. Robins sang in the thickets at the base of the path. Rising into open country a pair of carrion crows were quite noisy in a bare tree and a pair of ravens cronked their way high above the hilltop. There were a lot of red admirals about and all of them on the move and not stopping to feed. The whinberries had been picked almost clean but I managed to find one so I could say I've had one this year.

Holcombe Hill 

I spent a while enjoying the scenery at the top of the hill before following the flagged path away from the monument and onto the West Pennine Way. There was a passage of swallows and red admirals — about fifty of each passing low over the moor as I walked along. A couple of house martins flew a little higher, as did a yellow wagtail. There were dozens of meadow pipits about and a few skylarks flitted about before disappearing into the tussocks of grass and heather.

Raven, Holcombe Moor

I passed the gate and walked along the path enjoying the luxury of springy peat beneath my feet. It didn't last long, a steep descent along a crumbly path isn't the best place to remember that in the book I was reading the other day the witness to the murder was tumbled down a Pennine slope to stop him talking. The family of four ravens circling about me was a touch ominous.

Holcombe Moor 

Winter Hill from Holcombe Moor 

Reaching level ground I stopped for a drink and a bite to eat and the ravens lost interest and moved on to bullying the carrion crows a couple of fields away. A green woodpecker was yaffling away somewhere down in Redisher Woods. As I sat in the sunshine I looked over the valley to Winter Hill which looked a lot overcast. Over the hill it looked like Wigan was copping for a rainstorm.

The West Pennine Way 

Approaching Moor Bottom Road 

I followed the path down until it met Moor Bottom Road and I bumped into a charming family of stonechats including three youngsters in varying states of fluffy moult.

Stonechats, Holcombe Moor

I followed Moor Bottom Road back onto Holcombe Old Road and headed for the bus back to Bury. I had more bad luck with buses and ended up getting embroiled in college kicking-out time so I called it quits and headed home on the tram from Bury. I'd had a dawdle and a decent walk, the knees were working again and I'd seen a good selection of birdlife and some very fine scenery so I couldn't complain.