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Stock doves, Pennington Flash 

It was a mild and cloudy morning. After a couple of day's actively resting and cosseting the Achilles tendon that's giving me the hump I decided I'd have a couple of short walks with a fair break between them.

The first target was Elton Reservoir, which I've neglected a bit. A pair of common scoters had been reported there over the weekend, providing a useful excuse for a visit.

The bird feeders in the car park were busy, mostly with greenfinches and great tits, a few goldfinches, blue tits and a coal tit getting in when they could.

Elton Reservoir 

Canada geese crowded the bay by the sailing club. A few mallards dabbled about the edges and a pied wagtail flitted about the jetty. Further out a raft of a couple of dozen coots bobbed about and half a dozen black-headed gulls squabbled. A few swallows hawked low over the water and there were were more of them out over midwater.

I walked along the bank. Whitethroats sang from hawthorn bushes, chiffchaffs skulked about in the willows and wrens sang from the depths of scrub. I reached open ground and could see lesser black-backs bathing midwater and more rafts of coots and lines of Canada geese cruised about. A small flock of sand martins joined the swallows over the water, small dark shapes zipping across my eyeline as I searched for the scoters.

Canada geese 

At last I found them, two dark shapes on the water, bigger and darker than the tufted ducks beyond, bigger and duckier than the coots. They were too far out to get much detail and I quickly lost them as they dived and I couldn't pick up where they re-emerged.

Walking by the creek

I walked up the creek, whitethroats, chiffchaffs and dunnocks singing and a willow warbler fossicking about in the Himalayan Balsam..

Speckled wood

There were lots of large whites, red admirals and speckled woods about. A few common blue damselflies zipped about the long grass. I had to check the impulse to chase after the brown hawker patrolling the reeds, neither I nor the camera have good enough reaction times to get a photo of one in flight. Walking down the other side of the creek I could see a mute swan dozing amongst the mallards and coots.

Half a dozen house martins hawked over the little bay by the creek, keeping well away from the swallows and sand martins over the way. By this time I'd convinced myself that I'd seen a couple of tufted ducks and all else was wishful thinking so it was nice to emerge from the trees and find the scoters quite a bit closer to hand than they had been.

Common scoters

It was a duck and a drake, which doesn't necessarily mean they were a pair. The yellow on the drake's bill was very dull, I think this is as close to an eclipse plumage common scoters get.

Common scoters

Common scoters 

Common scoters

I decided not to walk through into Radcliffe. Instead I went back to the creek and walked up the lane to Bolton Road for the 471.

My second target was Pennington Flash, to have a potter about and see if the lesser scaup was about. It's a bit of a haul from Elton Reservoir to Pennington Flash but very straightforward: 471 to Bolton, 582 to Leigh and 610 to Pennington Flash and all the buses running every quarter of an hour when they're behaving themselves. Which today they did.

Walking into Pennington Flash from St Helens Road 

It was dead quiet walking down the lane from St Helens Road. There wasn't even anything on — or in — the brook.

Stock dove
I was surprised to find it amongst the mallards.

It was a very different game in the car park where the Canada geese and black-headed gulls were scoffing bread faster than the tiny tots could throw it. A few mallards dozed on the shore or chased each other round the trees for no apparent reason. I had a look to see if the Egyptian geese were about and had no joy. Offshore a raft of coots drifted with the wind and a handful of tufted ducks bobbed up and down. Way out in the middle of the flash a handful of lesser black-backs were having a bath.

From the Horrocks Hide 

Lapwing chick

The spit at the Horrocks Hide was a solid, weed-covered mass of land. The tops of the heads of the herring gulls, cormorants and mute swans at the end of the spit could be seen in the distance over the rise. A herd of mute swans cruised leisurely offshore, herring gulls, tufted ducks and great crested grebes littered the strait. A couple of grebes were sitting on nests and their partners were bringing along fresh materials to shore them up. The black-headed gulls still had possession of the rafts but looked to have finished nesting, there were a lot of flight-worthy youngsters about. Common terns could be heard but took some finding until they flew out into the flash. All the time I was taking this in a lapwing was shepherding a couple of youngsters round a muddy patch in front of the hide.

Mute swans and Canada geese 

After the eerie entrance it came as a relief to hear singing chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the trees. A few brown phantoms turned out to be robins taking to cover.

It was quiet again at the Tom Edmondson Hide. A mallard made sure its three-quarters sized ducklings kept well away from the ghostly pale heron fishing on the pool. A reed warbler sang from the reeds by the path.

Heron

The wind had gotten up by the time I got to Ramsdales so all the viewings was through a screen of waving reeds. A mallard had small ducklings, the juvenile lapwings were full grown and a dabchick was hinneying from heaven knows where.

Stock dove

The feeders on the Bunting Hide were very busy with stock doves and great tits. And more stock doves. And a few magpies and blue tits. But mostly stock doves. Which was nice as it gave me a chance to have a good look at them without them suddenly scooting off, which is generally the way when they're feeding in fields. One of the birds looked duller and greyer than the others but I couldn't be sure if it was a juvenile or a moulting adult. I suspect the latter, the few times I'm sure I've seen juvenile stock doves they've looked underfed and all these birds were (very understandably) on the plump side.

A very young juvenile bullfinch

Also nice to see was a very young bullfinch looking like some exotic escape as it had yet to get its black cap and bib. This is a plumage usually missing from the bird guides. A young robin turned up, too, starting to show the first of its red feathers.

Moorhen 

A moorhen flummoxed the stock doves. They were adapt at barging magpies off the bird tables by flying in at them and bumping into them amidships but they didn't seem to have a strategy for shifting moorhens.

Juvenile robin

I walked back to St Helens Road. "You've just missed a kingfisher!" said a man standing by the brook. I congratulated him. It would have been nice to have seen it but I'm happy they're about.