Dove Stone

Red-legged partridge 

I slapped the sun cream on and set out on what was forecast to be a not bad day, remembering to take my cap to keep the sun off my bald patch and the rain, too, if I was unlucky. Both knees were aching and needed a bit of exercise in them so I thought a few inclined planes would be in order. A wood warbler had been reported singing in the usual territory by Dove Stone Reservoir so I thought I'd try and find it.

I got the train to Greenfield and walked through town to Holmfirth Road. I could have waited twenty minutes for the bus but it's less than a mile onto the walk. I checked out the canal and the rivers for grey wagtails or dippers, just in case, but no joy.

Chew Valley from Holmfirth Road 

It was pleasant walking weather and after the first rather steep hundred yards the rest was a nice gentle incline up to the car park at Binn Green where the wood warbler can be heard.

Beside Holmfirth Road 

There were plenty of jackdaws and woodpigeons in the fields on the approach to Dove Stone Reservoir. But no starlings, which struck me as odd. Blackbirds and song thrushes sang in the trees accompanied by robins, chiffchaffs and willow warblers. A nuthatch made sure I hadn't noticed it was using an old woodpecker's nest for its own purposes.

Chew Valley 

Looking over at Chew Valley I felt guilty for not having had a walk up there in decades. I really should, it's just a long drag up from the station to the car park by the reservoir where the path up the valley begins. I'll have to get the bus to the Clarence and start from there when I finally get round to it. I can't say I fancy the walk back up Park Road, mind.

I'd spotted a couple of pheasants in the fields and I'd accidentally spooked a buzzard which was feeding on beetles in the sheep droppings before it noticed me coming and flew sharply off, I almost overlooked the red-legged partridge sitting on the other side of the wall. I only noticed it when I was putting the lens cap back on the camera after taking a photo.

Dove Stone Reservoir 

Drawing level with the reservoir chaffinches and blackcaps joined in with the singing in the trees. I thought for a moment I could hear a cuckoo but at that moment half a dozen cars came hurtling down the road, drowning out all save the song thrushes. Once they'd passed I tried again but could only hear the yapping of a distant dog.

As I approached the marker for the start of the Peak District National Park I heard a faint trill in the trees ahead which made me prick up my ears. I couldn't catch it again but strongly suspected it was the wood warbler, which was encouraging. Just as encouraging was hearing an unambiguous call from a cuckoo somewhere in the trees on the other side of the woodland below the road.

Binn Green 

I arrived at the Binn Green car park where the first bird to greet me was a coal tit wanting me to move on so it could visit its nest, which I did. It had chosen a tiny crack in a dry stone wall for its nest hole.

Binn Green 

The trees were lively with birdsong. The blackbirds, song thrushes, chiffchaffs and willow warblers were joined by chaffinches, robins and a mistle thrush. I've been giving the Merlin app another try so I thought I'd let it sift through the songscape. It struggled to find the song thrushes and chiffchaffs but it picked up a couple of blackcaps before I did. I think the dunlin it flagged up was a bit of road traffic noise. 

I didn't need the app to find the wood warbler, it was trilling in the conifers by the car park. There's something almost grasshopper-like about the song, quite different to our other leaf warblers. Hearing it and seeing it were quite different things, despite the relative lack of leaf cover in the conifers. A moment's quick glimpse as it flitted between trees was the best I was getting today.

The cuckoo was singing from this plantation on the other side of the reservoir

I had a nosy round, bumping into great tits and pairs of chaffinches in the undergrowth along the way. A cuckoo started calling. It may have been the same bird as before but this time it was singing from the plantation over on the other side of the reservoir. I looked out from the viewpoint by the car park but couldn't find it.

Binn Green 

I was back in the car park and I tried and failed to find the wood warbler as it sang in the trees. I had a bit more luck looking in from the road, a full half-second's sighting before it disappeared into the canopy of a conifer. I was happy just to be able to hear it.

Red-legged partridges

The walk back down Holmfirth Road was much the same as on the way up. The clouds had rolled in a bit which made for a few dramatic lighting effects on the landscape. A pair of Canada geese bobbed about in the middle of the reservoir, the only birds I saw on it all afternoon. Even the passing black-headed gulls kept on passing. The red-legged partridge I'd passed on the way up was joined by a friend.

Dove Stone Reservoir 

Holmfirth Road 

The sum total amount of tawny owl I've seen this year

I walked the way down into Greenfield, got the 350 bus from the Clarence into Ashton-under-Lyne and thence home. As hillwalking goes the afternoon had been a lazy doddle but it had sorted out the aching knees and the year list had been boosted up to 181.