Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck

Had a wander round Etherow Country Park and Keg Wood this afternoon. The weather was warm and heavy, which meant that as far as people were concerned the country park was busy and Keg Wood fairly quiet. Birdwise both were fairly quiet: it's that time of year when there's plenty about but mostly available as small bird noises in trees and bushes.

Black-headed gull numbers are well up again near the car park, they nearly outnumbered the mallards. The drake mandarins were all in eclipse plumage, only the red of their bills to give you a clue as to their identity.

Comma butterfly

River Etherow

There was only the one grey wagtail on the river but plenty of dragonflies: a lot of brown hawkers and a couple of common hawkers.

Keg Wood was mostly very quiet. Had the walk ended at Sunny Corner I'd have said there was not much on at all. As it was, on the way back I bumped into a large mixed tit flock including one or two family groups of long-tailed tits (a few of the juveniles looked very young and had barely half-length tails), a couple of nuthatches, a treecreeper and two or three goldcrests (trying to keep track of them high in the canopy was a challenge!)

More of the same in the country park. I toyed with the idea of having a wander through Ernocroft Wood for a change but, frankly, the heat and humidity had me wilting so I called it quits and headed off home.