Etherow Country Park

Dipper, River Etherow

With the change in the weather I took myself off to Etherow Country Park to walk some of the ache out of my knee and to take some photos of mandarin ducks (well, somebody's got to do it). It was a quiet, grey afternoon and a pleasant walk.

Etherow Country Park

There were plenty of mandarin ducks on the little canal, including half a dozen first-Winter drakes. Some of the adult drakes were already vying for the attentions of the ducks, their barks and grunting at each other entirely unlike their usual low whistles.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

First-Winter mandarin duck

There was just the one grey wagtail on the river today. And a very nice adult dipper which kept still long enough to let me take its picture from the little wooden bridge over the canal overflow and also from the bridge by the weir.

Dipper, River Etherow

Over in Ernocroft Wood a couple of carrion crows and a pair of jays were shouting the odds.

There was a large mixed tit flock — at least a dozen each of long-tailed tits and blue tits with great tits, chiffchaffs and coal tits — flying between the weir and Keg Wood. I walked into Keg Wood a little way. I didn't go far, my knee was feeling the inclines and I've a walk I haven't done before planned for tomorrow. 

Etherow Country Park

I turned back and took the path that goes up the hill and back to the visitor centre, the first hundred yards or so are steep then it runs level parallel to the canal then gently drops down to the road. It doesn't have the rollercoaster dips and rises of Keg Wood or the sustained climbs of Ernocroft Wood. It's a nice bit of beech woodland and I bumped into the mixed tit flock again.

As I got to the road a buzzard floated overhead, almost stalling in the wind. I walked down to the bus stop and got the 384 bus into Stockport and thence back home.