Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck

Another nice day so I bobbed over to Etherow Country Park to get mandarin duck onto the year list. My heart sank when I arrived and saw the crowded car park but I needn't have worried, I wasn't long down the path before I lost the crowds. What was nice was that any time anyone stopped for a chat they always parted with the phrase: "Take care."

It took a while to find any mandarin ducks, they were nearly all on the river, loafing and preening in pairs. I spent a while taking photos, a couple of couples stopped to have a look to see what the attraction was and were delighted by seeing these ducks for the first time.

Mandarin duck

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Mandarin ducks

I looked in vain for any dippers or grey wagtails on the river. The one grey wagtail of the day flew overhead as I was standing by the Weir.

Keg Wood

Keg Wood was quiet of people but noisy with birds. Very noisy: at times it was difficult to pick up the sounds of quieter birds for the singing of chiffchaffs, nuthatches, robins and great tits. 

The path through Keg Wood as far as the house by the orchard has just been resurfaced. I don't know if it's coincidence or not but I found the troughs and rises a lot easier on the knees on this visit.

A couple of birds flitting about in the birch trees by the entrance gate turned out to be a pair of siskins. This set the scene for a very productive wander round the wood. A couple of male blackcaps sang in shrubs along the path and a female gorged herself on ivy berries, adding to my collection of "There was a warbler here a moment ago" photos. There were a lot of chiffchaffs about, all of them singing from quite high in the trees. Every corner of the path seemed to have its own very vocal pair of nuthatches.

There's a dip and rise just after the fork in the path that goes down to Keg Pool. I was most of the way up the rise when I heard a green woodpecker yaffling from the trees at the top of the hill. I couldn't see it — it would have been astonishing if I could at that range. It's been so long since I've heard a yaffle it took me half a minute to recognise what I was hearing. (Note to self: mug up on bird songs and calls again, you're out of practice.)

Daffodils, Keg Wood

A chap passing by stopped for a chat and told me he'd just heard his first willow warbler of the year. I had no luck today, I'll have to wait until next month for my first. A lady sitting on a bench told me to listen out for the woodpecker in the trees by the shed at the end of the new road. I bumped into it a bit further along but didn't get a good sight of it. 

A bit further along I heard a goldcrest calling in some ivy by the path. It took me a while to see it — the calls were often swamped by the great tits and chiffchaffs in the trees behind it. Along the next bend I bumped into a pair of treecreepers flitting between the beech trees.

I sat and had a late lunch (a Capri-Sun and a fruit bar) at Sunny Corner in the company of a pair of coal tits and a couple of squirrels. Once I'd finished I strolled back to the country park, encountering lots more of the same along the way. Good to see so many butterflies this early in the season; plenty of small tortoiseshells and red admirals all over the shop and dozens of brimstones along the steeply wooded banks.

Ernocroft Wood

The country park was getting busy by now so after a quick shufti in Ernocroft Wood (woodpigeons, chiffchaffs and more coal tits) I wandered down and back to Compstall Road.

Beeches, Etherow Country Park

Another nice productive bit of birdwatching.