Foulridge

Goodander

A red-throated diver's been on Lower Foulridge Reservoir the past few days which gave me the excuse to visit part of Lancashire I've neglected this year.

At Preston Station 

I got the train to Colne, fretting about the connections until I realised I was on the right Blackpool train to make an easy connection at Preston with no fuss whatsoever. In the ten minutes at Preston it changed from being a mild, cloudy day to torrential rain and I wondered if I was being quite wise. It was still pouring down at Colne so I decided to get the bus into Foulridge rather than walking. Luckily the rain had blown over three quarters of an hour later when I started walking, the buses apparently having been diverted.

By Skipton Road 

The wind asserted itself as I walked up Skipton Road to the reservoirs and I was glad of the shelter of some roadside trees. Looking over to Upper Foulridge Reservoir I couldn't see much save a cormorant and a goldeneye on the water. On this side of the road every tree trunk had a squirrel.

Coming onto Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

I joined the path by Lower Foulridge Reservoir, disturbing a couple of mallards and a pair of teal as the path came down to the waterside. The last time I came here, last Autumn, the reservoir was barely half full with great stretches of muddy shore. Today it was full to the brim.

Robins and wrens sang and a couple of blue tits and a great tit bounced through the trees. They proved to be the rearguard of a mixed tit flock that would be accompanying me as I walked along the Southern edge of the reservoir. The long-tailed tits in the flock had no qualms about coming within arm's length but were off like a shot whenever the camera got their measure.

Long-tailed tit

Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

There were nearly a dozen great crested grebes out on the water, a couple of territorial males being very vocal indeed, barking at younger-looking birds they didn't like the look of. I could also find a couple of goldeneyes and a raft of black-headed gulls but no sign of any diver.

Lower Foulridge Reservoir 

I carried on looking through the trees as I walked along but I wasn't seeing even a likely candidate for a diver. I let on to a couple of local birdwatchers (I've an idea one was the chap who found the hoopoe last year) and they told me it flew off at dusk last night. Ah well, no matter, it was okay walking weather and it's a nice walk.

The path by the Southern margin of the reservoir 

This is the first time I've seen Polytrichum moss on top of a dry stone wall, though it was dry only in the sense of having no cement.

Goosander

Half a dozen redhead goosanders bobbed about by the sailing club. Midwater another redhead was accompanied by a drake. 

Goosander

The wind was blowing sun and showers at almost minute intervals. The blue tits and blackbirds in the hedgerow by the path kept to the depths, breaking cover only when the gaps in the hedge gave them no other option. A coal tit in a tree by the road was a little hardier but it dived for cover when a particularly heavy — but mercifully short — burst of rain passed through.

Incoming squall

One of the sunny spells

I completed the circuit of the reservoir and checked the buses. Had it been earlier in the day — or the year — I'd have taken the M5 to Barnoldswick and the bus round from there to Clitheroe, just to explore a bit. But it wasn't so I got the M5 to Burnley, the timings being such that I would have been kicking my heels for the best part of an hour waiting for the next train at Colne. It was a long journey home, made the longer and more wearisome by late and cancelled trains. I think I'll give them a miss this weekend .

Lower Foulridge Reservoir