Hollingworth Lake

Buzzard, Shaw Moss
Either heavily into moult or has thrown four moth-eaten cardigans on in a rush.

I've found  this August to be hard going. it's not just that it's a quiet time for birdwatching, or the weather's made it even quieter than usual this time of year, or the hay fever, or the trains, there are days when I just can't be bothered. And today was one of them. I was fully committed to wasting a sunny day listening to the cricket but I couldn't be bothered listening to the cricket. So I dragged myself out of the house and went for a walk around Hollingworth Lake.

As the train approached Rochdale the sunny day had been replaced by the ominous clouds that seemed to have been a feature of the couple of decades I spent working there. By the time we got to Smithybridge where I got off there were big slabs of blue sky poking through the cloud. For some reason this was my first visit of the year. I'm not consciously put off by the ten minutes you have to wait trying to cross Milnrow Road.

Hollingworth Lake 

Hollingworth Lake was heaving busy with every permutation of old folk, children and dogs you could imagine. A crowd of Canada geese, mallards, mute swans and black-headed gulls were mugging for food on the slipway by the sailing club. I decided to go the other way and have an anticlockwise walk round the lake.

Dunnock, Hollingworth Lake 

It's a nice walk but it was too busy for hearing or seeing small birds quietly going about their business. A couple of robins sang and a dunnock bobbed out of a willow bush to pick at some crumbs by the path.

Out on the water a raft of lesser black-backs drifted midwater or loafed about on unoccupied boats. A few cormorants and herring gulls flew about, there were more loafing on the bank with a lot of black-headed gulls over on the Rakewood Road end.

Looking towards Shaw Moss 

Along the Southern shore the fields were busy with sheep and jackdaws and noisy with a family of carrion crows. I scanned round on the off-chance of finding a passage migrant or two but just found a few woodpigeons sitting on fenceposts or devouring hawthorn berries.

I squeezed through the narrow gap by the fence and walked up the path to Shaw Moss. The fields were busy with woodpigeons and the sky busy with swallows. I let on to a birdwatcher coming back from Shaw Moss. He said he'd had redstarts in the hawthorns by the farm a couple of weeks ago, which was good news for him and I congratulated him but bad news for me because I'd been hoping to catch them today and they don't tend to linger. Never mind, it's a nice walk and a very quiet one too.

Shaw Moss 

Besides the woodpigeons and swallows there was the occasional house Martin and a handful of greenfinches and goldfinches twittered in the trees. A couple of black-headed gulls fossicked about by the caravan park and a juvenile buzzard was begging loudly somewhere over Rakewood.

Shaw Moss 

I walked up to the end of the path at Annis Hill Farm and wandered back towards Hollingworth Lake. Another couple of buzzards floated overhead followed by three more and all five soared noisily over the farms. I'd passed a small pond along the way, on my way back a heron flew in and sat by the side until a couple of horses were brought into the field for a bit of rest and recreation.

Teal, Hollingworth Lake 

It was fairly busy with birds at the hide by the lake, most of the noise being provided by the lapwings and black-headed gulls at the waterside. There weren't a lot of ducks and they all looked like youngsters, certainly the gadwalls and the couple of mallards were juveniles and I think most if not all of the dozen teal were, too. I don't see families of teal nearly often enough to be confident in the differences between immature and female plumages.

Teal, Hollingworth Lake 

I walked round to Rakewood Road where a swarm of swallows was hawking low over the fields. I drifted down to the visitor centre to add chaffinches to the day's tally then went for the bus back to Rochdale.

Swallows, Hollingworth Lake 

I got the 456 back to Rochdale. I wondered if I had the energy to get off at Wardle for a quicky nosy round Watergrove Reservoir. Dear reader I barely had the energy to remember to get off the bus at Rochdale.

By Rakewood Road