Fishmoor Reservoir site guide.
Inc. associated sites: Whinney Hill Tip and Rishton Reservoir.
Updated Dec 2005.
By Bill Aspin.
Above: This bird was stood on ice on Guide
Reservoir (Bill Aspin).
Introduction.
Fishmoor Reservoir is situated at the SE
side of Blackburn, barely 2 miles from the town centre. The site is
best-known for the Gull roost, which offers birders a better chance of
connecting with Iceland Gull
than perhaps any other Gull roost in Lancashire.
There are two reservoirs, the largest
being Fishmoor, whilst the smaller one is known as Guide Reservoir. This site
guide concentrates mainly on the Gull roost which has been watched regularly by
a tiny number of local birders during the period 1993-2004.
Access/viewing.
Above:
The main Fishmoor pre-roost as viewed from the recently developed JJB car park,
Dec 2004 (Photo: Bill Aspin).
The grid reference for the site is SD697260. The site can be easily accessed via junction 5 of the M65.
The recent development of a JJB store
and car park on the eastern side of Fishmoor has revolutionized the ease with which the main pre-roost of Gulls can be viewed and the reservoirs in
general can be accessed. The ability now to call in and view from this car park
should also vastly improve coverage away from the winter months. Outside the Gull
roost period the reservoir has been grossly under-watched over the years.
Directions from M65, jcn 5:
The nature of the Gull roost.
Note the use of the words ‘pre-roost’
in the last section. Fishmoor is different from most other roosts in that the
Gulls don’t actually roost overnight on the water. Instead they prefer to
roost on the roof of the adjacent Steelworks, formerly Walkersteel, now
currently owned by Corus.
Therefore, when viewing only from the JJB
car park, there is the distinct possibility that a ‘white-winger’ or other
good Gull species may have chosen to fly directly onto the roof without
pre-roosting and therefore would not be seen from this viewpoint. This can
and does happen. Also, a smaller pre-roost, of mainly Common and Black-headed
Gulls occurs on the adjacent Guide Reservoir.
My preferred viewpoint over the years for maximising my chances of finding/locating a Glaucous and/or Iceland Gull has been from the NW corner/western side of Guide Reservoir. Here you can scope both pre-roosts and also the roof used by the Gulls to roost. The downside is that you sacrifice closer views of the ‘smaller’ Gull species in the main Fishmoor pre-roost. Having said that, the likes of Med Gull can be picked out amongst the hordes of smaller Gulls from this vantage point.
I cannot stress enough that if you have
travelled to Fishmoor in
the hope of twitching a ‘white-winger’ and have viewed only from the new JJB
viewpoint without success, then a last ditch scan of the roosting roof from this
side of Guide Reservoir is essential if you wish to maximize your chances.
Access to Guide Reservoir is possible from the opposite end of the JJB car park.
Gulls.
Above:
This bird represented the second site record in the period
1994-2004.
As well as Iceland
Gull, the winter Gull roost also produces
Glaucous Gull
on an almost annual basis (just one blank year since 1994) and regular Mediterranean
Gulls as well as the
occasional rare Gull that have included 2 Ring-billed Gulls (Feb-March 1994 and 1st Jan 2002) and a 3rd winter Kumliens
type Gull in December 1999.
Yellow-legged Gulls are also recorded occasionally and are probably more frequent than records suggest. A french-ringed second-summer bird occurred in 2001. Black-legged Kittiwake are also occasionally seen in the winter Gull roost, but the best chance of seeing this species at the site is probably during the late winter-spring period, with several records of passage birds in April. Little Gulls have also been occasionally recorded. Fishmoors / Whinney Hill's, and indeed Lancashire's, first fully documented Caspian Gull, a superb 1stw, graced the site in early February 2005.
Above: Juvenile - first winter Yellow-legged Gull, Fishmoor Res, Lancs, 19th Sept 2002 - Bill Aspin.
Above:
First summer – second winter Yellow-legged Gull, Fishmoor Res, Lancs, 18th
Sept 2002 (Bill Aspin). More images of this bird here.
The Gull roost year.
The Gull 'season' at Fishmoor begins as early as mid-July, when the Gull's begin to disperse from breeding colonies. The period mid July - October is the most reliable time to connect with Mediterranean Gull, though they are relatively frequently seen in winter. This July - October period is also the best time to pick out the occasional Yellow-legged Gull.
The earliest date for Iceland Gull is a 1stw bird on the exceptionally early date of 31st October 1995. In recent years, the first appearance of this species has involved an adult which usually appears from mid-November and has then been seen intermittently throughout the early-mid winter period. It is generally thought that the same returning bird is involved in these sightings.
The size of the Gull
roost peaks at the Christmas/new year period. The Gull watching at this
time can be particularly good, especially after a few days of no-tipping at
sites across the country, which usually sparks a cross-country movement of Gulls
occasionally with excellent results - An example of this being 1st Jan 2002, when large
numbers of Gulls could be seen moving towards the coast - The roost at Fishmoor
that afternoon held Both Glaucous, Iceland
and a ' one-day' adult Ring-billed Gull
(click on species to view articles). The
first winter period usually provides the peak numbers of ‘white-wingers’ in good years.
2003 was a classic example, with 3 Iceland and 2 Glaucous Gulls resident in the area during the whole of Jan-Feb, routinely feeding at Whinny Hill Tip and roosting nightly at Fishmoor, with a couple of ‘new’ birds thrown-in for good measure during the period. Five ‘large white-wingers’ in a day has occurred on more than one occasion over the years.
By mid-march, the roost is usually very
small, though there is always the chance of locating a summer plumage Mediterranean
Gull or other White-winged Gull (or
perhaps something better!) as they migrate northwards.
Associated
sites.
A significant proportion of the large
Gulls that roost at Fishmoor feed at Whinney Hill Tip, Altham, SD757305, so it
is well worth visiting the tip before checking the roost. However, note that
from early afternoon, the Gulls tend to begin to drift away from Whinney Hill
towards Fishmoor, therefore, mid-morning - mid afternoon is the best time to go
through the Gulls on the tip.
Images
above & below: The winter of 2002/2003 provided the best viewing
conditions of recent years at the tip.
Viewing here can vary, depending on where the refuse is being dumped. Therefore views can be superbly close during one particular winter and frustratingly distant and largely out of sight the next, so time and patience is often required.
It may still be possible to view the Gulls from the Quarry compound when the gates are open, dependant perhaps on the mood of the workers, but make sure you park outside the compound, on Whinney Hill Rd (as much off-road as poss), as one local birder has had his car locked in the compound overnight.
Parking on the southern side outside the quarry entrance (SD754304) or along Whinney Hill Rd is entirely at your own risk. There is a heavy movement of Lorry traffic along the road during week-days, as is venturing off the designated footpath on the northern side.
Midway, and just to the north of the flightpath between Whinney Hill and Fishmoor lies Rishton Reservoir, grid ref: SD715300. This site is well worth checking around the mid-afternoon period, as variable numbers of Gulls call in briefly en-route from the Tip – Fishmoor. Throughout the day at this site is a reasonably sized flock of Black-headed Gulls that occasionally contains a Med Gull, or perhaps something more rare one day.
Other notable species
that have been recorded at Fishmoor Res.
As already stated, away from the winter Gull roost, the reservoir has been very under-watched. This
is probably due to the fact that the reservoir is usually full and therefore not
very conducive to producing passage waders. However, in years when maintenance work is carried out and the water level has been lowered enough
to show mud, has proved very productive with species such as Spotted
Redshank, Little
Stint, Sanderling, Turnstone,
Knot, Whimbrel
and Ruff all being recorded.
However, low water levels at Fishmoor are very rare indeed!
1995 was one such year when wader mud was
exposed. During this period, a large European Golden
Plover flock was present for much of
mid-late autumn and Lancashire's third (and first twitchable) juvenile American
Golden Plover graced the site from 28th
October - 11th November.
Above:
Juvenile American Golden Plover, Fishmoor Res, Lancs, 28th Oct –
11th Nov 1995. The third Lancashire record (Photo: Steve Young).
Other scarce water-birds that have been
recorded at the site includes East Lancashire’s 1st record of Shag (6th-8th November 1996) and a Red-necked Grebe (Feb-March
1996). Smew
have been recorded a couple of times, including a fine drake in April 1988. Common Scoter and Greater
Scaup have also been occasionally
seen as well as small passage flocks of Whooper
Swan. A feature of Fishmoor in recent
winters has been a good run of Bewick’s Swan records
with three ‘one-day’ flocks in 2002-2003.
Above: 2 of 3ad Bewick's Swan, Fishmoor Res, Lancs, 7th Dec 2003 (Photo: Bill Aspin).
Sadly, the area of green belt around the reservoir is rapidly being developed for Housing estates, leisure complex’s etc. The current landscape will inevitably change in the near future. This is a great pity as a walk around the reservoir in spring or autumn usually produces a few Northern Wheatear as well as the occasional Whinchat and passage Stonechat. During the autumn, Sedge Warbler can be located amongst the sallows along the eastern side of Fishmoor or in the rank grasses that border the site, as well as the occasional Lesser Whitethroat in the remaining hedgerows. A female Black Redstart was located on a dry-stone wall bordering the reservoir in April 1996. Two Short-eared Owls spent the winters of 2001/2002/2003 in the fields on the eastern side of the reservoir, often giving amazing views. Sadly, for reasons stated at the start of this paragraph, the possibility of this species gracing the reservoir fields again for any length of time appears to have been removed.
Above: Short-eared Owl, Fishmoor Res, Lancs, winter 2002/2003 (Photo: Tony Disley).
Finally, If you do visit the site,
remember that nothing in birding is guaranteed. Many hours have been put in by a
small number of birders in the past 9 years and there are many blank visits as
well as the good ones! Please email any sightings to me at wcaspin@ntlworld.com
or (preferably) post sightings on the forum of www.eastlancashirebirding.net
Bill Aspin (December 2004).
