Bolton

Gadwall (top) and dabchick, High Rid Reservoir

It was another cool and fitfully sunny day so I headed for Bolton, the plan being to have a look on High Rid Reservoir to see if the scaup that was on earlier in the week was still about then to walk down Old Hall Lane into Doffcocker to see what was about on the lodge there. By the time I got off the bus and started to walk up Fall Birch Road it had become a sunny afternoon with a cold, stiff breeze to blow out the cobwebs and much else besides.

Winter Hill from High Rid Lane 

High Rid Reservoir 

Just how stiff the wind was became apparent when I got to the reservoir where there is no cover in any direction. I put my cap in my pocket, I don't have enough hair these days to secure it with a hatpin. The intense light rendered the very choppy water a dark inky blue and the glare off the black-headed gulls hurt the eyes. A crowd of mallards clustered by the near quarter of the reservoir, no doubt hoping for scraps from the passing dog walkers. There were a lot of coots about and quite a few gadwalls. The tufted ducks were keeping pretty much to themselves. I looked in vain for anything that might be a scaup, even the upended tufted ducks preening their bellies looked unequivicably like upended tufted ducks. The first female goldeneye of the Autumn was a nice consolation prize.

Dabchicks 

Mallards

Gadwall, a tad windswept 

There were also plenty of dabchicks about and a couple of great crested grebes. Half a dozen wigeons were a nice surprise. A less welcome surprise was how quickly I lost them when they steamed off into the glare of the sun, I didn't find them again. I think there were half a dozen cormorants about, it was hard to tell as most of the time they were just black sinewy necks arising from violently sparkling water.

Goldeneye

Wigeons and black-headed gulls 

Cormorant 

Coot

A more typical view of the cormorants

Geese may safely graze…

The usual mob of grazing Canada geese on the hill above the reservoir were joined by a gaggle of a couple of dozen greylags. Further along a flock of about a hundred gulls — roughly equal numbers of herring gulls and black-headed gulls with a few lesser black-backs and common gulls mixed in — loafed and preened.

Herring gulls and black-headed gulls 

High Rid Reservoir 

Unsurprisingly there were no small birds about. Unlike me and the dog walkers they had the sense to keep to cover from the wind. It did seem strange, though, not to bump into any wagtails at all here. Completing the circuit the great crested grebes floated closer to hand but I was jiggered if I could see where the goldeneye and wigeon had got to.

Coot

Great crested grebe

It was a relief to drop into the shelter of High Rid Lane as it became Old Hall Lane. Odd rustlings in the bushes were mostly fallen leaves, every so often they'd be a robin. Carrion crows, woodpigeons and jackdaws fossicked about in the fields and the pied wagtails I hadn't been seeing on the reservoir were chasing each other round barns.

Old Hall Lane, damp underfoot

I carried on and joined Old Kiln Lane where the hedgerows were bustling with house sparrows then walked down the main road into Doffcocker and took the footpath into Doffcocker Lodge Country Park.

Doffcocker Lodge 

The causeway 

It was still breezy but lying in a hollow surrounded by trees and houses made a big difference. I walked down the causeway path between the lodges, the small one on the left was busy with mallards, coots and gadwalls, the considerably larger one on the right had a raft of black-headed gulls and was peppered with coots and great crested grebes. Way over on the other side by the car park a crowd of mute swans, mallards, farm geese and black-headed gulls were mugging for scraps. The causeway was fringed with moorhens.

Great crested grebe

Having got the stiffness out of my knees walking round the reservoir like a fool I jarred them doing a brisk trot across the main road while there was a gap in the traffic. I sat down for a few minutes to let the painkillers kick in, in the company of a kestrel hunting over the scrap of grass by the bench.

Kestrel

Walking to the car park

I walked down to the car park. Blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits moved furtively through the trees, never making up a coherent mixed flock. Goldfinches twittered from the tree tops but were surprisingly difficult to find.

Bird food vending machine. No bread.

At the car park I found that this is another park where Bolton Council has installed a bird food vending machine. Which explained the tonnage of birds sitting near the machine.