Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks, Etherow Country Park

I looked at the weather forecast and realised that Plans A and B were off the table as both depended on it's not being misty or foggy. So I grabbed an early lunch and nipped over to Stockport, there getting the 383 bus into Compstall for a wander round Etherow Country Park.

Etherow Country Park, with black-headed gulls 

There was a fair old mist rising up from the river and the boating lake, I spent a lot of the time this visit trying and failing to get romantic moody photos of misty woodland (the camera on my 'phone automatically sharpens the picture when it gets too fuzzy and the big camera's got a 150 - 500 lens on it which doesn't always lend itself to landscape photography). The light was pretty grim for big lens photography even though it was still only late lunchtime though this didn't stop me pushing my luck trying to take photos of ducks.

The boating lake was heaving with black-headed gulls and mallards. The farmyard geese nearly outnumbered the Canada geese. In part it could be that the latter haven't returned yet after last week's big freeze. I suspect avian flu could be a factor, too, I spotted two corpses in the pool. I had a chat with a lady in biohazard gear who was heading out to bag and bin them, she told me that DEFRA confirmed the flu outbreak here yesterday. We both hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as the outbreak at Sale Water Park where she'd also been tidying up to try to contain the epidemic. She was particularly worried about the family of mute swans that swam up to see if she had any food on her, apparently the matriarch had had the flu last year and got over it but lost a couple of cygnets to it. Grim stuff and I can't see any end in sight from the reports I've been reading.

Etherow Country Park 

Unlike last time, and despite the murky light, there were still a couple of mandarins on the little canal and more flew in to roost in the trees in the mill pool at the top near the weir. I had a scan of the river at the weir, the usual big white goose was on her usual big flat rock, honking at passing woodpigeons. The river was fast and high after the snow and rain. A movement in the slightly slower eddies amongst the rocks at the side of the river raised my hopes of seeing a dipper but turned out to be the top of the head of a foraging moorhen. I'd also had hopes for a grey wagtail or two, they'd been frozen out of their usual haunts on the Mersey last week. It looks like they were here, too, and haven't come back yet. I expect they're all with the hooligans on the sewage farms.

Keg Wood 

I had a brief wander around Keg Wood, I was feeling too stiff and achy in the cold and damp for a full circuit. Constant waves of jackdaws passed overhead, each making a racket on its way. There wasn't a lot to be seen, everything except the woodpigeons and squirrels were keeping under cover, and most of the undercover rustling came from raindrops dropping onto holly leaves. A few blue tits bounced through the beech saplings by the path while robins, wrens and blackbirds could be heard rummaging about in the undergrowth. 

Keg Wood 

I'd had a nice couple of hours' wander in the mizzle. The birdwatching wasn't hectic but a leisurely potter about before the festive hostilities is no bad thing.