Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Common gull, Elton Reservoir

I was due a visit to Elton Reservoir, the arrival of a Slavonian grebe there this weekend gave me a good reason to do it today. I left a garden full of titmice and spadgers and got the train into Manchester. Now that most of our trains don't stop at Deansgate it's trickier than it used to be to get to Bury and Rochdale so I caught the Blackpool train, got off at Bolton and got the 471 over to Bury.

Siskin

Walking down to the sailing club the trees were full of birdsong: great tits, robins, coal tits and woodpigeons sang almost incessantly, wrens burst into song as I walked past them. Blackbirds, greenfinches and goldfinches fussed about in the hedgerows; jackdaws, magpies and black-headed gulls called as they passed overhead. The feeders at the car park were busy with greenfinches, great tits and goldfinches. A couple of chaffinches passed by, a trio of bullfinches made a cameo appearance and a lone male siskin flew in and gave a brief burst of song from a treetop before moving on with a small flock of goldfinches. No redpolls today, though, but I shouldn't be greedy.

It was a dull, grey sort of day and it was wet underfoot so I decided to stay on the South side of the reservoir. Which was muddy enough for fun.

Elton Reservoir 

The usual crowd of mallards, coots, mute swans and Canada geese congregated about the corner near the car park. A raft of black-headed gulls drifted offshore. I made sure to check there wasn't a Mediterranean gull in there and found a couple of common gulls. I walked round the sailing club, finding a grey wagtail in the sluice by the clubhouse and a pied wagtail on the edge of the reservoir. 

Mallard, coot and Slavonian grebe (right)
Heavily cropped record shot.

There was a handful of lesser black-backs amongst the herring gulls on the water, a great black-back drifted on its own. It took ages to find any grebes, which is unusual as the great crested grebes generally hug this bank. The first grebe I saw was a dabchick skittering over the water by the far bank, I calmed myself down, it wasn't the Slavonian grebe, they're small but not that small. Then I found a couple of the great crested grebes swimming round each other by Radcliffe Old Hall Farm. I was watching them and wondering if they were going to make an early start at dancing when I noticed the Slavonian grebe steaming past a group of mallards. It showed very well right indeed but kept its distance from this bank. Had I squelched and slid my way across the other bank I'd have been closer but struggling to see it for trees and bushes. The Slavonian grebe went in for a lot of deep dives but I couldn't see that it was catching much.

Elton Reservoir 

Withins Reservoir 

Withins Reservoir was half-full, which was odd because the ground around it was saturated and the paths running streams. A couple of dozen each of mallards and teals cat-called me as I walked round.

Lumpy bracket fungus

Walking along Redstart Alley was like walking down a gutter

Having told myself I wasn't dropping drown at the sluice then climbing up to join the path through Redstart Alley and past the farm and onto the canal that's precisely what I did. The great tits and jays in the hawthorns of Redstart Alley were pretty unimpressed. Truth be told, for all my griping about the mud it was a very nice walk. Blackbirds, carrion crows and magpies fossicked about in the fields and robins sang in the trees.

Manchester, Bury and Bolton Canal 

Coot

I walked down the Manchester, Bury and Bolton Canal into Radcliffe. The hawthorns were very busy with titmice, blackbirds and robins, the fields on the far side were busy with jackdaws and crows and pairs of mallards, coots and Canada geese cruised the canal. A solitary mute swan grazed by the Banana Path bridge.

Manchester, Bury and Bolton Canal,  Radcliffe town centre 

Last week's laziness was telling on me, by the time I got into Radcliffe town centre my knees were screaming. Any ambitions I may have had to skip over and join the Outwood Trail were firmly knocked on the head. I hobbled to the nearest bus stop, which was the 524 to Bolton. I didn't have long to wait and while I was having a nice sit down and got my second wind on the bus I remembered this stops at Moses Gate Country Park. I surely must have enough legs left in me for a toddle round the lake.

Goosander

So I got off at Moses Gate Country Park and walked up to the lake. Goosanders and Canada geese loafed on the River Croall and a cacophony of gull calls drifted over the rise from the lake.

Mute swans 

The lake was extremely busy with birds. Scores of herring gulls and black-headed gulls crowded out the mallards, Canada geese and even the mute swans mugging for scraps by the car park. There were perhaps a dozen lesser black-backs, I scanned the hordes for anything more exotic but it wasn't happening today. A couple of cormorants loafed on poles, moorhens and coots fussed about, a couple of pairs of gadwalls nodded to each other and a raft of tufted ducks drifted across the lake. I had a sit down to say encouraging things to my legs and listened to the robins, coal tits and great tits singing in the trees.

Moses Gate Country Park 

Moses Gate Country Park 

The sun poked its way through the clouds and the scenery all looked very picturesque. I somehow found myself walking up the hill out of the country park into Farnworth. 

Moses Gate Country Park 

Halfway up I cursed myself for a fool. Up top I congratulated myself on getting the joints working again (the thigh muscles were less impressed and had to be mollified when I got home with liberal lashings of Doctor Ethel Nasty's Fiery Rubbing Cream). It was worth it, though, I'd had two very good birdwatching walks, the weather had behaved itself and I was no longer walking like somebody had stuck a polo mallet down each trouser leg.