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.

Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Black-necked grebe, High Rid Reservoir 

What with one thing or another the past week was shot to bits as far as getting out and about was concerned so I thought I'd best catch up with some walking before the joints seized up completely, I'd spent the weekend walking like Long John Silver. The weather was what's euphemistically described as: "changeable," so I thought I'd have a short walk that could be easily extended weather permitting. A juvenile black-necked grebe has been showing well at High Rid Reservoir so I headed thataway.

Fall Birch Road 

I got the train to Bolton and the 575 to Ox Hey Lane. Crossing the road's fun here but two drivers took pity on an old man. I made heavy weather of the gentle cobbled slope up Fall Birch Road, I really should have made more of an effort to walk around the block a few times every day last week. The birdwatching was very quiet: a few woodpigeons clattered about the rooftops and silhouettes of blackbirds, great tits and robins flitted about the hedgerow by the golf course.

Mallards

A crowd of mallards, most of them near-grown ducklings, clustered about the near corner of the reservoir. More of them littered the banks. One duck had two tiny youngsters in tow. A crowd of coots clustered in the corner further along and a raft of a couple of dozen tufted ducks drifting between the crowds included a couple of half-grown ducklings. 

Black-necked grebe
First sighting it was asleep.

I spotted the black-necked grebe before I noticed the half-grown tufties, which saved a deal of confusion (I managed to confuse myself something silly later on when I was scanning round from the Northern shore). I walked up a bit, finding a couple of dabchicks in amongst the tufted ducks, the juvenile being altogether greyer and browner and much more low contrast compared to the black-necked grebe. I looked out into the midwater where I'd last seen that, to confirm the comparison. Stap me vittles there were two of them. They drifted close to each other and dived, staying underwater an unconscionable time, which seems to be a feature of black-necked grebes, before bobbing back up again a hundred yards apart.

Black-necked grebe diving

Black-necked grebe 

Juvenile grey wagtail 

While I was watching the grebes and ducks a family of grey wagtails fossicked about on the waterside. Pied wagtails fussed about on the bank to the North and an adult male worked its way along the castellated top of the stone wall, bobbing up and dropping down as it went.

Pied wagtail 

Pied wagtail 

Canada geese and greylags 

A herd of Canada geese with a handful of greylags grazed the field to the North. A flock of rooks and jackdaws fussed about in the shorter grazing further up the hill. Half a dozen each of Canada geese and greylags cruised the reservoir, a couple of the greylags flying over from the field to join them. There weren't many gulls about, most of the lesser black-backs, herring gulls and black-headed gulls were flying over between engagements. A few black-headed gulls and a couple of lesser black-backs settled on the reservoir to bathe before moving on to wherever. 

High Rid Reservoir 

Looking North towards Chorley New Road

The wind had picked up and was pushing some filthy clouds our way. A common gull blew in as the rain started spotting. I decided not to push my luck carrying on down Old Hall Lane and walked back down Fall Birch Road, the joints making themselves known along the way.

I got the 575 into Wigan, the weather clearing along the way. I'd decided I needed an off-road dawdle on the flat to get some movement back into the joints. There were a few options available, I hadn't visited Byrom Hall Wood yet this year and the 610 was sitting at the bus station when we arrived so that's where I headed for.

Byrom Hall Wood 

I got off the bus at Golborne High School and walked down Farm Croft Drive then followed the path down past the school field. This stretch always looks and feels like unfinished business with drives through gateways to non-existent houses. I disturbed a charm of about fifty goldfinches feeding on the thistledown in the abandoned pasture. Much to my surprise a garden warbler was singing in the copse by the gate.

Lightshaw Meadows 

A quick scan over Lightshaw Meadows found woodpigeons commuting between fields and swallows hawking low over ripening grain. A willow warbler squeaked in the trees I was standing by.

Batman hoverfly looking fearsomely wasp-like 

Batman hoverfly, a bit friendlier from the front
Unfortunately it wasn't for letting me have a good dorsal view to show the Batman mask on its thorax.

It was a fairly quiet Summer walk through the woodland. The woodpigeons, jays and magpies made themselves obvious enough. A couple of wrens sang. Chiffchaffs and willow warblers squeaked, great tits and blue tits tutted, long-tailed tits tried and failed to be silent as they bounced through the oak scrub. The brambles were awash with butterflies, mostly gatekeepers and speckled woods. Meadow browns, large whites and peacocks fluttered about the clearings. A small bird flew into a hawthorn I was passing and stood stock still and silent under the cover of twigs and branches. But not so under cover that I couldn't see the bright brown wing panel that nailed it as a whitethroat.

Peacock

As I approached Byrom Hall swallows and woodpigeons flew about the fields and a family of greenfinches flitted about between hedgerows. I had half an hour to wait for the 588 to Leigh so I crossed the road and wandered down Byrom Lane to Pennington Flash.

Byrom Hall 

Pennington Flash 

For a change I took the footpath that heads past Mossley Hall. I very rarely approach the flash from this end. A raft of about fifty coots drifted in the bay at the Northwest corner of the flash with a herd of a dozen mute swans and a couple of great crested grebes. Further out a small raft of lesser black-backs and herring gulls drifted midwater and in the distance there were more mute swans on the Horrocks spit.

Walking to Slag Lane 

Blackbirds and song thrushes sang in the trees and a great spotted woodpecker greatly objected to my passing by. I followed the path down and round to Slag Lane where I only had a couple of minutes to wait for the 588. While I waited I was serenaded by woodpigeons, a blackbird, a blackcap and a song thrush.

High Rid Reservoir

Greylags

It was a bone cold, wet and grey day. Gull-watching weather, I told myself. I've not had a look at the gull roost on Salford Quays yet this year but it felt like a bit of a glum sort of walk for a wet Wednesday. So I went over to High Rid Reservoir for a bit of gull-watching instead. Don't worry, it doesn't make any sense to me either.

I got the 576 from Bolton, got off at Ox Hey Lane and walked up Fall Birch Road. It was grey and wet and miserable and the robins and song thrushes were singing their hearts out.

Fall Birch Road 

Approaching the reservoir I started seeing black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs drifting by overhead, probably on their way to the roost at Rivington.

High Rid Reservoir 

Goldeneye

Mallards

Dabchick 

I was glad of the big coat on my walk around High Rid Reservoir. Grey wagtails skittered round the bank and a dozen mallards quacked and courted on the corner by the gate. A couple of pairs of goldeneyes drifted about with a pair of tufted ducks. I could only see the one dabchick and the one great crested grebe.

Greylag

A lone greylag was calling from the reservoir and getting answers from somewhere. It was only when I was halfway round the reservoir that I could pick out that they were calling from over the little hill in the field with the two trees in it. I was over on the far corner of the reservoir when the mixed flock of greylags and Canada geese flew over the brow of the hill, half of them settling in the field and the other half joining the bird on the reservoir for five minutes before they all flew over and joined the others.

Black-headed gulls 

There was a constant stream of gulls, both on the reservoir and flying overhead. The black-headed gulls loafed and preened, socialising in rafts and on the reservoir architecture. The lesser black-backs kept to a raft in midwater, most of them busily bathing and preening. A couple of the subadults were very dark indeed with sooty heads. A couple of the adults didn't have a lot of contrast between primaries and the rest of the wing but just enough to rule out intermedius. The herring gulls dropped in, bathed and moved on without lingering long. A couple of the adults looked to have relatively dark grey upperparts, I concluded it was a trick of the poor light as in every other respect they were textbook herring gulls. Similarly a couple of pale sandy first-Winter herring gulls were pale sandy first-Winter herring gulls.

Lesser black-backs 

Lesser black-backs, herring gulls and black-headed gulls 

By the time I finished the circuit all the herring gulls had flown. Overhead there was still a stream of black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs heading for Rivington. On the time-honoured basis that any lone bird that should be in a flock is worth a second look I took a quick glance at the juvenile herring gull passing high overhead. Luckily there were no small dogs about to hear my reaction when I noticed the bird had pale sandy coloured flight feathers. A first-Winter Iceland gull has been reported on an off all Winter on the reservoirs at Rivington, this was probably the same bird. I wonder where it was coming from.

High Rid Lane

I knocked on the head any ideas about carrying on down Old Hall Road into Doffcocker, it was too cold and damp to be much fun and the bird life would soon be shutting up shop for the day. I walked back down to Chorley Old Road, got the 575 back to Bolton and thence home. All the way back my knees reminded me they don't like cold, damp weather but the rest of me felt the better for a bit of exercise. And a bonus Iceland gull is no bad thing.