Rain stopped play

Dipper, Etherow Country Park

The blackbird started singing at 3am, the wren and one of the rooks — of all things! — started singing an hour later. I don't know how the blackbird has the energy, he'll be singing all day too and then he joins the dusk chorus.

The invisible house sparrows took a day to go through four fat balls and make inroads on the sunflower seeds. With some help from the titmice. The adult blue tits are in post-breeding moult, the male being completely bald and the female not far behind. They've managed to raise at least two youngsters, the great tits seem to have only managed one. The juvenile blue tits have tagged onto the silver team of spadgers, old silver cheeks himself still doing the safety reconnaissances before the rest move in.

The common rosefinch is still being reported in the same place I didn't find it yesterday, such is life.

I decided to go and take photos of mandarin ducks in the rain, getting the train to Stockport and picking up the 383 from there. As I arrived at Humphrey Park Station a half-grown fox cub was playing on the railway line, a fine-looking little beast with a dark silvery grey back.

Canada x greylag goslings, Etherow Country Park

As I got off the bus the last of the rain eased off and it became a heavy, sweaty sort of afternoon. One of the first things I noticed at Etherow Country Park was a pair of rather ghostly looking Canada goslings in the crowd, almost certainly having a domestic greylag goose either as a mother or grandmother. As I walked down the path by the canal chiffchaffs and goldfinches sang in the trees and dunnocks and long-tailed tits skittered about in the bushes.

Etherow Country Park 

A noise behind a tree attracted my attention, an incessant rasping hawk like somebody sawing wood. A dog had savaged a Canada goose and it lay there dying. To my shame I walked on, there was nothing positive I could do about it.

Juvenile wren, Etherow Country Park

In the midst of death we are in life. Fledgling wrens and blue tits skulked in the undergrowth shouting for food. A couple of pairs of coots had near full-grown young and a couple of juvenile moorhens fossicked around on the opposite bank.

River Etherow 

The river wasn't near as high as I'd expected after the recent rains. The white goose stood at its sentry post with a couple of mallards and a mandarin duck. It took me a while to spot the dipper preening on a rock midstream. The grey wagtail was a lot easier, flitting about and occasionally calling.

I had a very brief foray into Ernocroft Wood where a pair of carrion crows were busy making sure a buzzard didn't linger. I'm going to have to make a special point of walking through the wood properly this Autumn.

Mandarin duckling, Etherow Country Park

A quick look at the river above the weir found me a mandarin and her two ducklings by the near bank. Another family of mandarins quickly disappeared upstream.

Coal tit, Keg Wood

I was in two minds whether or not to have a walk round Keg Wood, my joints have been feeling the change in the weather and a rollercoaster of steep inclined planes is no friends of painful knees. I was lured in by the calls of nuthatches, titmice and crows and the songs of blackcaps, chiffchaffs and song thrushes. Families of blue tits and great tits bounced around in the trees, chiffchaffs and long-tailed tits in the treetops. Robins were furtive and blackbirds and wrens seemed to be everywhere.

Keg Wood 

After about half an hour's wander my knees pointed out that they weren't enjoying themselves and I had to admit I had been noticing them more than the bird life the past five minutes. I retraced my steps and had a sit down just before the last rise and fall of the path. A friend bought me a walking stick for Christmas, I think I'll need to bring it along next time, see if that helps.

As I sat there a family of coal tits passed close by, treecreepers rummaged about on nearby tree trunks and more nuthatches, blue tits and great tits moved through the trees overhead. Over near the river a pair of carrion crows weren't sure if a squirrel was a threat or something to play with. In the end they decided not to play and moved on, probably as well for all concerned.

Dipper, Etherow Country Park

I drifted back to the weir and had a look down river. The dipper had moved a bit closer and was still preening. A couple more mallards flew in and made a lot of noise.

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

The mandarins I hadn't been seeing on the way down were waiting for me on the path on the way back and they all seemed to think I had duck food with me and made the cat I live with look like a model of patience. I was empty-handed, which wasn't the popular option.

Yellow water lily, Etherow Country Park

Mandarin, Etherow Country Park

The subtle approach 

Canada geese 

I walked down the anglers' causeway back to the visitor centre. More mandarins came a-begging, one near-eclipse drake pecking at my bootlaces. The Canada geese had evidently decided that this was a prissy approach and they charged down the causeway mob-handed, demanding food with menaces. Picking my way through them was a tricky business not least because the young goslings had been taught bad habits and pushed through to the front once they got to me.

Moorhen chicks, Etherow Country Park

The moorhen chicks had more sense. If they couldn't find their parents to hide behind as I walked past a mallard or a Muscovy duck would do.

River Etherow with the canal overflow