Along the Croall

Marsh helleborine

It was a bright, if cloudy, day and agreeably warm. A couple of black-necked grebes had spent the past couple of days on the lodges at Moses Gate Country Park, I thought I'd have a look to see if they were about and then drift about and see where I found myself.

I got the 524 from Bolton Bus Station and got off at the entrance to the country park. Blackbirds and blackcaps sang either side of the road. As I walked down to the car park I decided to have a look at the river, the Croall, and I surprised a kingfisher which shot up into the canopy of one of the riverside trees.

Crompton Lodge

There was no sign of the black-necked grebes on the lodges. I took my time looking, my reckoning being that if after scanning round the big pool for quarter of an hour I could overlook a tufted duck I could just as easily have overlooked the grebes, especially considering how long they can stay underwater. I hadn't, but it's as well to check. Mute swans and mallards mugged passersby by the car park. Canada geese and more mallards dozed under trees. The black-headed gulls kept away from the raft of herring gulls and lesser black-backs over on the other side. And all the while a flock of sand martins and a couple of swallows hawked low over the water.

Great crested grebe

A great crested grebe sat on her nest in the middle of the pool. A nearby coots' nest was being used as a rallying point by the owners whenever the tiny chicks started to wander too far. Another coot was sat on a nest under the trees. All the mallard ducklings were very nearly full-grown.

Red-eyed damselfly
The chappie on the left is a water lily beetle of the genus Donacia.

Brown hawkers and a Southern hawker patrolled the lodges. Damselflies swarmed over the lily pads in the smaller lodges. Most of them were red-eyed damselflies, I've not knowingly seen them before so I made sure to get a good look at them to get my eye in. A few black-tailed skimmers hawked low over the water or sunned themselves on the paths. 

Common blue damselfly

Red-eyed damselflies

Black-tailed skimmers

I wandered back to the river and walked along to join this end of the Kingfisher Trail which starts up in Jumbles Country Park. Meadow browns and small tortoiseshells fluttered around the meadows while carrion crows, blackbirds and magpies fossicked about in the grass.

River Croall 

The Kingfisher Trail 

In the woods I joined the trail, I have an unerring capacity for finding staircases in woodlands. It's a mostly flat walk thereafter so my knees were in a forgiving mood. Blackbirds and blackcaps sang in the trees and robins silently disappeared into the wayside. It seemed odd to have all that shingle bankside and small rapids on the river and have no wagtails or dippers but it was so. At one intersection of paths four song thrushes had a singing duel which baffled the senses, particularly as one of them had a few notes from a police siren in its repertoire.

River Croall

A little further on a buzzard circled high over the woodland and a jay called from the other side of the river. The path turned into an opening in the trees by the river. A kingfisher, which had been sitting in a tree on the near bank shot across into the trees on the other. Blackcaps, blackbirds, chiffchaffs and wrens sang in the trees as I walked along. Then I was through the gate and out of the trees and on Nob End.

Goldfinches twittered about and whitethroats sang in the bushes and carrion crows rummaged about in the meadows. Large whites, meadow browns and small tortoiseshells fluttered about and brown hawkers and Southern hawkers patrolled the landscape.

Nob End is notable for its unusual flora, being very different to the surrounding area due to the land having been contaminated by the soda works that was here in Victorian times. Most of Greater Manchester's natural riches have industrial origins. I didn't think I'd have much luck spotting anything unusual, I expected that in my ignorance of plant life I'd overlook the specialities. I was wrong on both counts.

Marsh helleborines 

At first I was just seeing clovers and vetches. Then I started seeing the orchids. And more orchids. Most of the purple spires were unknown to me, they turned out to be fragrant orchids. I found a few common spotted orchids, and a few I presume were more common spotted orchids. And there were drifts of marsh helleborines. Which I also had to look up. I was frankly a bit overwhelmed by my bafflement. I later bumped into a chap who asked me if I knew where the bee orchids were. I admitted I had no idea but pointed him towards the meadow full of orchids.

Marsh helleborine

Fragrant orchids

Marsh helleborine

Common spotted orchid

Fragrant orchid

Common spotted orchid

Giant hogweed 

I crossed the river and walked into Farnworth, more blackbirds, song thrushes, goldfinches and wrens singing me on my way. The train back to Manchester left the station as I walked by, I hadn't thought to try going for that, I was too busy trying to work out the best way through the maze of back streets to get to the main road for the bus. I didn't have long to wait for the next bus, the 37 to Manchester. As we passed Blackleach Country Park my legs said no, let's not get off for a walk round. I changed in Swinton for the bus to the Trafford Centre. Along the way my legs said no to a walk round Worsley Woods either. I must be getting old.

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.

Greater Manchester bumper bundle

Black-necked grebe, Moses Gate Country Park 

It was one of those windy days where you know it's pouring down because the sun's shining. The business of the day was concluded by lunchtime so I caught the 20 from Salford Royal Hospital and debated whether to get off at Logistics North and risk a walk over Cutgate or stay on to Bolton and go on to Moses Gate Country Park where an adult black-necked grebe was gracing the big lake. In the event, I got off at Walkden and walked up to Blackleach Country Park.

As I walked across the green on Hilltop Road to the entrance to the country park a swarm of swallows flew in and started hawking round the trees, equal numbers of adults and juveniles. I had a bad stab at trying to get photos of them and didn't fare any better with the house martins that flew in and joined them.

Blackleach Country Park 

A chiffchaff squeaked from the trees as I approached the lake. A small charm of goldfinches twittered in the tree tops and a pair of bullfinches wheezed sadly as they flew over the path.

Coots and great crested grebes 

Rafts of coots and mallards drifted over the lake. Most of the mute swans lurked by the pier confident that someone would be along with some scoff. One pair dozed with a couple of large cygnets on the opposite bank. The cob steamed across the lake with all colours flying at the first rustle of a bag of bread. A pair of great crested grebes cruising about amongst the coots had a couple of young humbugs on their backs. Most of the black-headed gulls crowded onto one of the islands, until that bag of bread got rustled.

Black-headed gulls 

Mute swan

Blackleach Country Park 

I walked through to Bolton Road and got the 37 into Farnworth and walked down Lower Rawson Street into Moses Gate Country Park.

Moses Gate Country Park 

Of course, I forgot that this way in involves a steep but very picturesque path down to the lakes.

Moses Gate Country Park 

The first of the two smaller lakes was busy with coots and mallards. That is, until the rusty brown face of a mink broke water near the far bank and started making a beeline for the nearest raft of coots. They had it spotted fifty yards away and all the waterfowl save a couple of mute swans swiftly shifted over to the other side of the lake.

There were no such dramas on the water lily lake with its mallards and tufties.

Canada geese, mute swans, mallards, herring gulls, lesser black-backs, coots and moorhens
I've no idea why they like scrunching up together like this in this corral but every time I've been here they've done it. Correlation does not always equal causation.

Moses Gate Country Park 

I walked down to the big lake. "Are you looking for the black-necked grebe?" asked a gent with a big lens on his camera. "It's just next to that willow there."

And so it was.

Black-necked grebe, first sighting

A nice adult black-necked grebe still in breeding colours and entirely unperturbed by people standing on the path twenty yards away watching it fishing.

Mute swan 

Mute swan

It occurred to me that I was fighting the light — despite its being an overcast day — and I'd be better walking down a little beyond the willow and have the sun coming from behind me. Backlighting suits mute swans but not nearly entirely dark-coloured grebes.

Black-necked grebe 

Black-necked grebe 

Black-necked grebe 

Any chance you get to see any species of grebe up close, do so. They're bonny birds.

Coots and great crested grebes, juvenile grebe in the centre

A way further out a great crested grebe was taking its two near-full-grown humbugs for a cruise past the rafts of coots.

Great crested grebes, adult far right

Juvenile great crested grebes and coots

Herring gulls, lesser black-backs, coots and tufted duck

A lack of exercise was telling on that Achilles tendon so I quit while I was ahead and got the 524 into Radcliffe and got a bus home. One of those dull days that aren't dull.