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

Stock doves, Pennington Flash 

It was a mild and cloudy morning. After a couple of day's actively resting and cosseting the Achilles tendon that's giving me the hump I decided I'd have a couple of short walks with a fair break between them.

The first target was Elton Reservoir, which I've neglected a bit. A pair of common scoters had been reported there over the weekend, providing a useful excuse for a visit.

The bird feeders in the car park were busy, mostly with greenfinches and great tits, a few goldfinches, blue tits and a coal tit getting in when they could.

Elton Reservoir 

Canada geese crowded the bay by the sailing club. A few mallards dabbled about the edges and a pied wagtail flitted about the jetty. Further out a raft of a couple of dozen coots bobbed about and half a dozen black-headed gulls squabbled. A few swallows hawked low over the water and there were were more of them out over midwater.

I walked along the bank. Whitethroats sang from hawthorn bushes, chiffchaffs skulked about in the willows and wrens sang from the depths of scrub. I reached open ground and could see lesser black-backs bathing midwater and more rafts of coots and lines of Canada geese cruised about. A small flock of sand martins joined the swallows over the water, small dark shapes zipping across my eyeline as I searched for the scoters.

Canada geese 

At last I found them, two dark shapes on the water, bigger and darker than the tufted ducks beyond, bigger and duckier than the coots. They were too far out to get much detail and I quickly lost them as they dived and I couldn't pick up where they re-emerged.

Walking by the creek

I walked up the creek, whitethroats, chiffchaffs and dunnocks singing and a willow warbler fossicking about in the Himalayan Balsam..

Speckled wood

There were lots of large whites, red admirals and speckled woods about. A few common blue damselflies zipped about the long grass. I had to check the impulse to chase after the brown hawker patrolling the reeds, neither I nor the camera have good enough reaction times to get a photo of one in flight. Walking down the other side of the creek I could see a mute swan dozing amongst the mallards and coots.

Half a dozen house martins hawked over the little bay by the creek, keeping well away from the swallows and sand martins over the way. By this time I'd convinced myself that I'd seen a couple of tufted ducks and all else was wishful thinking so it was nice to emerge from the trees and find the scoters quite a bit closer to hand than they had been.

Common scoters

It was a duck and a drake, which doesn't necessarily mean they were a pair. The yellow on the drake's bill was very dull, I think this is as close to an eclipse plumage common scoters get.

Common scoters

Common scoters 

Common scoters

I decided not to walk through into Radcliffe. Instead I went back to the creek and walked up the lane to Bolton Road for the 471.

My second target was Pennington Flash, to have a potter about and see if the lesser scaup was about. It's a bit of a haul from Elton Reservoir to Pennington Flash but very straightforward: 471 to Bolton, 582 to Leigh and 610 to Pennington Flash and all the buses running every quarter of an hour when they're behaving themselves. Which today they did.

Walking into Pennington Flash from St Helens Road 

It was dead quiet walking down the lane from St Helens Road. There wasn't even anything on — or in — the brook.

Stock dove
I was surprised to find it amongst the mallards.

It was a very different game in the car park where the Canada geese and black-headed gulls were scoffing bread faster than the tiny tots could throw it. A few mallards dozed on the shore or chased each other round the trees for no apparent reason. I had a look to see if the Egyptian geese were about and had no joy. Offshore a raft of coots drifted with the wind and a handful of tufted ducks bobbed up and down. Way out in the middle of the flash a handful of lesser black-backs were having a bath.

From the Horrocks Hide 

Lapwing chick

The spit at the Horrocks Hide was a solid, weed-covered mass of land. The tops of the heads of the herring gulls, cormorants and mute swans at the end of the spit could be seen in the distance over the rise. A herd of mute swans cruised leisurely offshore, herring gulls, tufted ducks and great crested grebes littered the strait. A couple of grebes were sitting on nests and their partners were bringing along fresh materials to shore them up. The black-headed gulls still had possession of the rafts but looked to have finished nesting, there were a lot of flight-worthy youngsters about. Common terns could be heard but took some finding until they flew out into the flash. All the time I was taking this in a lapwing was shepherding a couple of youngsters round a muddy patch in front of the hide.

Mute swans and Canada geese 

After the eerie entrance it came as a relief to hear singing chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the trees. A few brown phantoms turned out to be robins taking to cover.

It was quiet again at the Tom Edmondson Hide. A mallard made sure its three-quarters sized ducklings kept well away from the ghostly pale heron fishing on the pool. A reed warbler sang from the reeds by the path.

Heron

The wind had gotten up by the time I got to Ramsdales so all the viewings was through a screen of waving reeds. A mallard had small ducklings, the juvenile lapwings were full grown and a dabchick was hinneying from heaven knows where.

Stock dove

The feeders on the Bunting Hide were very busy with stock doves and great tits. And more stock doves. And a few magpies and blue tits. But mostly stock doves. Which was nice as it gave me a chance to have a good look at them without them suddenly scooting off, which is generally the way when they're feeding in fields. One of the birds looked duller and greyer than the others but I couldn't be sure if it was a juvenile or a moulting adult. I suspect the latter, the few times I'm sure I've seen juvenile stock doves they've looked underfed and all these birds were (very understandably) on the plump side.

A very young juvenile bullfinch

Also nice to see was a very young bullfinch looking like some exotic escape as it had yet to get its black cap and bib. This is a plumage usually missing from the bird guides. A young robin turned up, too, starting to show the first of its red feathers.

Moorhen 

A moorhen flummoxed the stock doves. They were adapt at barging magpies off the bird tables by flying in at them and bumping into them amidships but they didn't seem to have a strategy for shifting moorhens.

Juvenile robin

I walked back to St Helens Road. "You've just missed a kingfisher!" said a man standing by the brook. I congratulated him. It would have been nice to have seen it but I'm happy they're about.

Starmount Lodges

Canada goose and dark-bellied brent goose

The morning calmed down after a ferociously wet night and became that mixture of sun, cloudy and showers that is the most uncomfortable option available to English weather. I was all for lolling about drinking tea and reading the personal columns of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday but I kept noticing the reports of a brent goose near Bradley Fold, just down the road from where I was yesterday. A brent goose in this region in June is unlikely. A brent goose in Greater Manchester any time of the year is unlikely. Together they proved irresistible. 

Hundreds of thousands of wild geese spend the Winter in the UK and there's always a few that miss the bus when they all leave. Usually it's due to an injury, when they recover there's no incentive for them to migrate so they mooch around waiting for the gang to come back next Autumn. Which is why it's not unusual to find an occasional pink-footed goose or whooper swan hanging out with the wildfowl over the Summer in Northwest England. I didn't have brent goose on my bingo card.

I got the train to Bolton and into the bus interchange. I'd just missed the 471 but the 511 was due in ten minutes and that suited me better, it goes round the houses a bit on its way to Bury and along the way it stops close to Starmount Lodges where the Brent Goose was hanging out with some Canada geese. It also meant I wasn't trying to cross Bury New Road on a Saturday afternoon.

I got off the bus at Bideford Drive. Across the road a gap between the houses was the footpath that would lead me to my quarry. It passed into some light woodland beside Blackshaw Brook and onto Banks Lane. Blackbirds and blackcaps and chiffchaffs sang in the trees and further down the brook a song thrush was drowning out all rivals. A family of long-tailed tits bounced about in the trees by the bridge over the brook. Dunnocks, wrens and chaffinches joined the songscape on Banks Lane where the robins silently rummaged about the verges. I caught a glimpse of one of the lodges through the trees, a pair of mute swans had cygnets still on the nest though looking ready for their first swim round.

The bridge over Blackshaw Brook 

Starmount Lodges 

I tiptoed past the house sparrows on Browns Road and entered the lodges. Moorhens, a couple of black-headed gulls and a mallard were keeping the anglers company on the nearest lodge but there was no sign of any geese. I followed the path and up onto the bund that contains the little reservoir there. There were a couple of dozen Canada geese, some with goslings, and there was the brent goose tagging along with a couple of Canada geese cruising round the pool. I've never seen the two species side by side before, I know brent geese are small geese but this really brought it home.

Canada goose and dark-bellied brent goose 

Dark-bellied brent goose 

Canada geese and dark-bellied brent goose 

I watched the performance for a few minutes then had a look down into the pool with the cygnets. The parents were obviously trying to coax them into the water and the cygnets were just as obviously reluctant. A family of coots fussed about in one corner, a pair of mallards with one young duckling in another. Just to demonstrate the bad temper of your average coot, one of the parents left the family gathering to go and bash a moorhen that had had the colossal nerve to walk down from the far bank of the pool for a swim.

Mute swan and cygnets 

Juvenile moorhen

Black-headed gull 

I walked back to Browns Road. A few black-headed gulls floated low over the lodges, a blackbird sang and spadgers fossicked about the hedge bottoms. Ordinarily I'd have taken this as an opportunity to walk over to Elton Reservoir for a nosy round but the weather was heavy and sweaty and the journey home would have gotten me embroiled in the crowds going to Parklife at Heaton Park. It made more sense to walk up to Bury New Road and get the 471 back to Bolton and thence home.

The weather cleared along the way. My train home wasn't affected by the tree that fell on the line, a coal tit was singing at the station. I spent half an hour looking for the cat only to find she'd been where she always is in the front garden but covered by grass and hardy geranium stems like Babes In The Wood. I had wondered why the young jackdaws and magpies were barracking on next door's fence. A cock sparrow brought the latest batch of spadgelings to the feeders in the back garden, the dunnock joined the wren, robin and blackbird in the songscape, a red admiral tried to chase a goldfinch off the seed feeders before going into battle with a rival over the blackcurrant bushes, it wasn't a bad end to the day.

Coots

Elton Reservoir

Tufted ducks

It was a surprisingly sunny morning so I set off for Elton Reservoir to see if the first-Winter scaup that was there all last week had decided to linger awhile.

Car park feeding station 

I got off the 471 just after the petrol station and walked down to Nigel's Lane and thence to the car park by the sailing club. The hedgerows were fizzing with robins, blue tits and goldfinches. As were the feeders in the tree by the car park. They were joined by great tits, greenfinches and long-tailed tits. There was a notable absence of chaffinches, perhaps they were put off by the wind which every so often would shake all the goldfinches off the feeders. A buzzard passed overhead and was chi-acked by magpies.

Elton Sailing Club 

I had a squint at the reservoir, very much in the manner of Jack Palance staring into the sun. The reservoir was very full. A lone mute swan sat in the corner, there were no Canada geese and just half a dozen mallards drifting by the bank. Out on the water the silhouettes of dozens of coots and black-headed gulls bobbed about on the choppy water.

I looked at the state of the path and concluded that I wouldn't be having much fun negotiating the muddier stretches while trying to pick out the runners and riders amongst wobbly silhouettes. I walked round past the sailing club to have a look over the Reservoir from the South bank. As I passed the farmhouse a kestrel flew over and hovered over the garden at head height before quickly drifting down the hedgerow and over the fields.

Elton Reservoir 

As I climbed onto the South bank the issue of sun in my eyes became suddenly theoretical as the wind blew a bank of thick, dark clouds our way. I disturbed a grey wagtail as I started walking on the puddle-strewn path and it disappeared into the grass down the bank.

Great crested grebe 

The change of light greatly worked in my favour. I could now pick out the small raft of tufted ducks amongst the coots by the mouth of the creek and the common gulls amongst the black-headed gulls. There weren't many large gulls about and they were 2:1 herring gulls to lesser black-backs. A couple of great crested grebes drifted about, half a dozen goldeneyes popped up from nowhere and there were lots more tufted ducks but I wasn't seeing me a scaup.

Tufted ducks

The weather got progressively less pleasant but I persevered. I got to the point where I decided to concentrate on the gulls on the irrational premise that the scaup would turn up if I stopped looking for it. A drake goosander turned up instead.

Goosander

I reached the path to Withins Reservoir and had one last look around for the scaup on Elton Reservoir. The rules of dramatic suspense would have it that this is the point at which the scaup hove into view. It didn't.

All the Canada geese were on the field behind the trees to the North of Elton Reservoir. The field by the path, which I'm told is Capsticks, was full of horses and woodpigeons but, strangely, no wagtails, meadow pipits or lapwings. I've yet to get meadow pipits onto the year list despite the visits to Chat Moss and the Sefton coast.

Walking to Withins Reservoir 

The path up to Within Reservoir was a bubbling brook. The reservoir was full to overflowing, very different to my last visit. There were more Canada geese by the far bank with a handful of mallards but any hopes the scaup might be hanging out here for a change came to naught.

Withins Reservoir 

I walked back to the path that leads to St Andrews Road. The weather had brightened which seemed to provoke a couple of song thrushes into song. I walked down to the bus stop to get the 98 into Manchester and passed singing collared doves and starlings along the way. Yet another dip — smew, shore lark, white-fronted goose, now scaup. I felt a bit despondent for a few minutes until I noticed that I was still matching last year's progress with the year list. It's a marathon, not a sprint.