We all knew that the weather was going to be very wet on Sunday but, most of our crew still headed out to see what we could find on a damp, dull day. Leaving Rochdale at 8am we headed over the M60/M67 and through the worst bottle neck known to man, Mottram in Longendale. Later in the day due to a closure of the M62 even this area seemed like a cakewalk! We had a fun time getting around Glossop and Old Glossop trying to find Swineshaw Reservoir that on Saturday had hosted a Grey Phalarope. Upon arrival one of the locals said, Has the rare bird returned then? He was politely telling us that the bird had gone I think? A damp walk up to a well-hidden reservoir was soon put into a nutshell by Chris B who said Its no wonder the bird has gone there are a few people swimming and lots of people with dogs walking around We headed back to the car after a little search for the phalarope.
Our next plan was to get onto the Wirral for the high tide (9+ metres) at Parkgate. Lots of people were already there as we watched the spectacle unfold as the tide rushed in. Well apart from two Marsh Harriers hunting out on the marsh the whole hour or so we spent there left us all rather disappointed. Now news that a Grey Phalarope had been found at Torside Reservoir, Derbyshire had us heading to the car as the heavens opened again. This must be the same bird that was at Swineshaw Reservoir the day before as it is only 4 or so miles away as the phalarope fly`s. We all agreed that as it was sort of on the way home we would try to connect with it. As we passed along the A57 near to the Glossop turn off, traffic that had been diverted off the M62 was jammed along Manchester bound for about 5 miles. We found the B6105 road and parked so that we could walk down to view the reservoir from the dam wall. Now this part was fun, the road was under water and due to the traffic heading off the A57 it became like Russian Roulette getting out of the car and managing to cross the road without getting soaked through, guess who lost? We met a couple of birders returning from the reservoir not having seen the bird. Surely we could not be heading for missing two phalaropes in Derbyshire on the same day. At the dam wall it began raining again, so during a scan of the water I picked up a small white bird in flight that looked good, then Chris B said that he had found the Grey Phalarope. It was distant but performing very well for us. It had rescued our day with its little feeding motion, nice bird. Chris navigated us home via the A6024 known as The Isle of Skye road called that due to the fact that there was a pub on that road at one time. Cracking scenery on the way home and a really memorable day for us all.
