Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

I bobbed over for a walk around Etherow Country Park and Keg Wood, the idea being that although the country park would be busy the wood wouldn't be and by the time I'd had a wander round and was on my way back the bulk of the crowd would be going home for tea. And if the worst came to the worst I'd have added mandarin duck to the month list (as it happens, for nearly an hour I thought that wasn't going to happen).

The lake by the car park hosted the usual suspects for this time of year: black-headed gulls, Canada geese, coot and mallard. The usual pair of Muscovy ducks were fossicking round in the creek beyond the garden centre; I've no idea where the full-grown youngster has gone.

Etherow Country Park

Up near the weir there was just the one grey wagtail, a female, feeding on the river. Up to this point I hadn't seen a single mandarin duck, it came as a relief as a couple of dozen of them flew up off the river and over into Keg Wood.

Keg Wood was noisy with robins singing and wrens taking exception to my passing by. I was most of the way to Sunny Corner when I encountered the first mixed tit flock. A couple of nuthatches took the vanguard, closely followed by a few great tits, blue tits and long-tailed tits following them, a treecreeper and a couple of goldcrests trailing behind. I sat in the "bus shelter" at Sunny Corner for five minutes to see what might turn up, just a squirrel and a couple of magpies this time.

By Sunny Corner, Keg Wood

I bumped into a second, smaller tit flock on the way back: a few great tits and blue tits, a nuthatch and a chiffchaff.

I had toyed with the idea of taking the track up the hill through Keg Wood and wander down to Hattersley for the train but it was getting a bit late to be tacking a three-and-a-half mile detour to the walk. I think I'll come back in a couple of weeks to specifically do that walk.

Back in the country park there were more mandarins on the river and a couple of pairs on the pool by the weir. A couple of cormorants loafed in the dead tree on one of the islands in the model boating lake.

Cormorant, Etherow Country Park

 A nice afternoon's walk, enjoy them while I can.