Lancashire bumper bundle

Canada geese, Clowbridge Reservoir 

It was a grey, cool morning, about right for a bit of reservoir watching. I was still rankling about the lousy view of the red-necked grebe I had the other week and I'd noticed that although I'd seen them in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and Cumbria I haven't seen one in Lancashire. The bird at Clowbridge Reservoir has been showing well for ages, the Burnley Witchway bus stops by the reservoir every twenty minutes, I thought I'd chance it.

The grebe's been reported mostly from the Eastern end of the reservoir so I stayed on to Waggoner's Inn and walked down the road a bit, sharing a Cornish pasty with a carrion crow, to Linney Lane. This leads to the footpath around the reservoir, cutting over it at its Easternmost end.

The hedgerows down the lane were fizzing with singing greenfinches and courting house sparrows. A few goldfinches flew about and a few chaffinches could be heard in the small plantation of conifers just beyond the car park.

A dozen Canada geese loafed at the Eastern end of the reservoir. Way out over on the Western side I could see a couple of black-headed gulls. And that was pretty much it for first sight. I walked along and split my time scanning the reservoir and trying to find the siskins I heard amongst the goldfinches in the little conifer plantation on the corner ahead of me. As I reached the plantation the first hailstorm of the day struck and I was glad of the somewhat limited shelter.

Red-necked grebe, the closest view I got

At last I saw the grebe. It was distant but it looked like it was giving good views from the path near the road at Clowbridge. As I headed that way the grebe drifted across the reservoir. By the time I got past the plantation it was over on the other side. It got near to a group of goosanders by the bank then quickly headed Eastwards. A couple of birdwatchers confirmed that they had, indeed, had good views from the path near the road.

Clowbridge Reservoir 

A little marshy cut of the reservoir by the road had a couple of pairs of mallards and a coot rummaging about in it. The coot came as a surprise, I don't think of them as Pennine birds. Scanning the reservoir again, and seeing the grebe steaming off in the opposite direction I found a lone male goldeneye in midwater. 

Clowbridge Reservoir 

I was debating whether to retrace my steps to try and get a closer view of the grebe when the second hailstorm hit. I decided to head for the bus. The third hailstorm hit just as I was getting on the bus back.

It was still only lunchtime, I had an itch to visit another site. I changed at Rawtenstall and got the 464 to Rochdale with an idea of either getting off at Healey Dell or if the weather was bad staying on to Rochdale, checking out the river and the Town Hall peregrines and heading home. The horizontal hail as we passed through Backup persuaded me against a wander through Healey Dell. It didn't last long, it was sheeting down rain in Britannia.

So I got off the bus at Station Road and walked into Healey Dell.

Coal tit

The sun came out and provided a very high contrast modelling light, which can be wonderful for landscapes but challenging for bird photography. I needn't have worried too much, the birds weren't up for posing for the camera, most of the small birds staying under cover or else bouncing through the treetops.

Robin and

Healey Dell 

I headed North from Station Road and followed the river up to the lodge. Great tits, robins and coal tits were doing most of the singing, with the coal tits fidgeting about in the moss-covered trees by the path. A pair of Canada geese and a couple of pairs of mallards mooched about the lodge pool by the path, moorhens and dabchicks kept to the vegetation on the other side.

River Spodden, Healey Dell 

I'd been hoping to see grey wagtails and dippers and struck lucky with both: a grey wagtail flew downstream on my way up to the lodge, a dipper shot upstream as I walked back the other side.

It started sleeting as I joined the old railway line and started walking down into Rochdale. This is another of the pleasant country walks provided by Marples and Beeching though it had been closed to passenger traffic in 1947. It was surprisingly quiet compared to the riverside woodland, just a few robins and great tits with occasional cameos by wrens and blue tits. I could hear a buzzard calling from Chimes Wood as I crossed the viaduct but the now blinding light prevented my pointing my binoculars that way. 

Healey Dell, walking down the old railway line 

Further along the path goes through a deep cut. It was very quiet of birds here save the occasional magpie. Which made the explosive call of a green woodpecker somewhere just over the top of the cut all the more startling. It's so rare that I hear the yaffling of a green woodpecker these days it took me a few moments to realise what I was hearing.

Woodland Road 

At the end of the path through the reserve I crossed the road and walked down Woodland Road. This is an old lane following the Spodden past the derelict asbestos factory and onto Rooley Moor Road where I could get a bus to Bury or Rochdale depending on which came first. Titmice, robins and wrens bounced about in the trees. There's a lodge on the opposite side of the river just before the asbestos works. Had you said to me twenty years ago I'd be watching a little egret on a pool in Rochdale I'd have questioned your medication. And there it was, rummaging about with the moorhens.

It was hailing when I got the bus to Bury. I headed home.

The third hailstorm heads for Clowbridge Reservoir