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| Mandarin drake moulting into eclipse plumage |
I had a bout of couldn't be bothered so I dragged myself out for a late afternoon stroll round Etherow Country Park and Keg Wood.
It was a grey day, cooler than it has been lately and with a light breeze so a good day for getting round the rollercoaster paths of Keg Wood. Etherow Country Park wasn't very busy, except with ducks and geese. One family of new mallard ducklings aside, the ducklings were nearly full grown. Some of the young drake mandarins were already showing hints of rusty orange about the ear coverts. Some of the drake mallards were starting to moult into their duller eclipse plumage, a lot of the mandarins were well into moult.
A family of grey wagtails flitted around on the river by the weir. Judging by the beakfuls of caddis flies the male was collecting they've got a second brood on.
Keg Wood was noisy but hard work to see anything. Nearly all the noise came from singing blackbirds and song thrushes. Here and there they'd be joined by a wren or a chiffchaff. Otherwise it was mostly the contact calls of families of small birds hiding behind leaf cover.
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| Grey wagtail |
A family of grey wagtails flitted around on the river by the weir. Judging by the beakfuls of caddis flies the male was collecting they've got a second brood on.
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| Juvenile carrion crow |
Keg Wood was noisy but hard work to see anything. Nearly all the noise came from singing blackbirds and song thrushes. Here and there they'd be joined by a wren or a chiffchaff. Otherwise it was mostly the contact calls of families of small birds hiding behind leaf cover.
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| Keg Wood |
Just by the house by the orchard I heard a couple of juvenile great spotted woodpeckers and eventually found them as they flitted about the trees by the telephone pole. They flew over into the orchard then down towards Keg Pool.
I had a sit down and a drink at Sunny Corner accompanied by serenading blackbirds and a carrion crow with two particularly noisy youngsters. A jay flew in, silently checked me out to see what I was doing then silently flew off.
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| Mute swan cygnets |
I continued down the path, wheeling round and down to Keg Pool. The family of mute swans there are obviously used to being fed, they steamed over sharpish when I got to the bank of the pool.
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| Mandarin duck preening |
As I walked back the mandarin ducks were settling down to preen and a had to pick my way through the crowds of Canada geese and mallards blocking the paths. A sparrowhawk flew low over, evidently didn't fancy its chances here and carried on into Compstall.
There are worse ways of spending a Summer teatime.
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