Reservoir Wednesday

Juvenile pied wagtail, Hollingworth Lake
It's not often you get close enough and they sit still enough to be able to see the yellow gape at the side of the beak.

It was a warm, sunny morning so I thought I'd go for a gentle stroll. A long-tailed duck had been recorded at Hollingworth Lake but had disappeared overnight. No matter, the report reminded me I've not been there in ages and it's a nice, gentle stroll. And if the pollen count's going be high a Pennine reservoir is a fair way of hiding from the worst of it.

I got the train to Smithybridge and walked up to the lake, the slope irritating the knee more than the ankle but the exercise was getting the movement back into the joints. Along the way there was the bonus of a handful of Southern marsh orchids in the grass verge, which was nice to see. Blackbirds, spadgers, starlings and dunnocks rummaged around in front gardens, jackdaws and woodpigeons clattered about the rooftops and swifts screamed about the chimney tops. There were dozens of swifts, showing the advantage of having a huge body of midgey water up the road.

Hollingworth Lake

The lake was, understandably, very busy. Which didn't bother the house sparrows flitting about between the gardens and the bankside. Nor the young pied wagtails overly much though the adults were a lot more skittish. A huge raft of Canada geese cruised the lake in between boatloads of kids learning how to row like Vikings. Most of the gulls on the water were lesser black-backs, there were handfuls of herring gulls and black-headed gulls. The hedgerow songscape was mostly blackbirds with a few blackcaps and chiffchaffs near the houses and gardens, robins and great tits out by the fields. Out in the fields to the South reed buntings, greenfinches and chaffinches sang in the hawthorn bushes.

Looking South from the lake

The path to Shaw Moss, with jackdaw

The crowds were feeling a bit oppressive so I took a time out by taking a walk part of the way along the path to Shaw Moss. It was very quiet of people but noisy with singing woodpigeons and wrens. Magpies and blackbirds rummaged about in the fields and a lot of greenfinches flitted about in the hawthorn bushes. It feels good to be able to write: "A lot of greenfinches." Oddly there weren't any hirundines about, I was expecting to see some swallows at least around the cattle sheds. The non-appearance of swallows where I'm expecting them is getting to be a point of concern.

I wandered back to the lake, got myself a lemon sorbet to give myself an ice cream headache and carried on with my circumlocution.

The nature reserve 

The hide in the nature reserve was busy but there were plenty enough gaps in the trees to see what was about. A few mallards and their ducklings dabbled about in the company of some moorhens and magpies. Out on the beach about forty gulls — two lesser black-backs for every herring gull, plus a couple of black-headed gulls — loafed with a handful of very vocal oystercatchers.

The lake by Rakewood Road

I carried on walking up to Rakewood Road and found out where the hirundines were. A commotion over the houses across the field was house martins chasing off a kestrel. As I walked down the road a flock of swallows descended on the beach across the road and hawked low over the water's edge, keeping out of the way of the gulls while they did so. The balance of things was restored. Further reassurance was the meadow brown butterflies fluttering about the fields on my side of the road.

By Rakewood Road 

The 456 bus was due in ten minutes so I waited and got that into Wardle for a walk up to Watergrove Reservoir to see what was about. It turned out that what was about was a film crew and the Eastern end of the reservoir was off-limits. Which was no great hardship, there's good walking away from there.

Watergrove Reservoir 

Lesser black-backs 

The water was low here, too, and a couple of dozen lesser black-backs loafed on the spit that had emerged. A pair of great crested grebes drifted midwater and dozens of Canada geese congregated on the far bank. Willow warblers and blackbirds sang in the trees down below and a buzzard slowly floated overhead and headed for the hills.

Pied wagtail 

A family of pied wagtails skittered about the base of the reservoir wall. I could see a wader further along and assumed it was a redshank. I eventually caught up with it and was surprised to find it was a greenshank. There's been a passage of waders, mostly sanderlings, over the Pennines recently, this bird might be a part of it.

Greenshank 

I had five minutes' sit down on a bench to check my notes and assess the aches and pains and was surprised to find that the notes were copious and the aches and pains minimal. That being the case I decided not to drop back down into Wardle for the bus, instead I'd have a stroll over the hill into Whitworth. It was just the right weather for it and it's a walk that's easy on the knees with soft ground and climbing not compulsory. As I got up from the bench I noticed a grey wagtail feeding a fledgling at the top of the step bridge overflow.

Grey wagtails

Heading for Slack Gate

It was a very pleasant walk, just what I needed. Blackbirds and robins sang from the trees and skylarks and meadow pipits sang from the moorland. Rooks and jackdaws fossicked about around the sheep, carrion crows flew about the slopes, magpies popped up anywhere. 

There'd evidently been a mass emergence of burnet moths, they littered patches of ragged robin and lady's bedstraw, hardly letting the small tortoiseshells and common blues get a look in at the flowers.

Five-spotted burnet moth on ragged robin 

Common blue 

This path becomes Slack Gate

Slack Gate
It gets posher further along.

I walked along Slack Gate to the radiating confusion of paths near the golf club. Usually I walk down Whitworth Rake into Whitworth for the bus into Rochdale. Today I opted for the bridleway to Syke, just out of curiosity.

The bridleway to Syke

The bridleway follows the route of the feeder stream for Brown House Wham Reservoir (people think I make these names up). Blackbirds, chaffinches and skylarks sang and there was at least one Canada goose on the little reservoir by Springside Farm.

Brown House Wham Reservoir 

Willow warblers, meadow pipits and wrens joined the songscape at Brown House Wham Reservoir, a couple of drake mallards pottered about on the water. 

Fanny Brook 

The bridleway became Dirty Leech, became Limers Gate then became Dewhirst Road and I was heading into Syke for the bus into Rochdale. Of course, I'd forgotten how bad the traffic is on Whitworth Road, I spent most of the next hour sitting on that bus as it crawled down the road. And even that couldn't take the gloss off a very good day's walking.