Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks, Etherow Country Park

It was a grey day with bits of might-have-been blue sky poking through some of the corners. I took myself off to Compstall for a wander round Etherow Country Park to take pictures of mandarin ducks in the rain. 

I got the train over to Marple, noticing along the way that the recent storms had blown down the magpies' trial nests at Trafford Park Station and one was starting again from scratch; a buzzard hunting in the railway yard just before Ashbury's; and a couple of goosanders swimming down the river as we passed over Reddish Vale Country Park.

I've tweaked a muscle in my ribs, one of those ridiculously inconsequential yet painful injuries you do to yourself when you forget you're no Spring chicken, bend over and pick up a carrier bag the wrong way. Luckily it's one of the mid-range intercostals so it only hurts if I cough or take the wrong type of deep breath, like when I'm hauling up a steep gradient. Which is why I decided to have a quick potter about Brabyn's Park then get the 383 up to Compstall. It's only three stops but the walk up Compstall Road isn't one of my favourites.

Brabyn's Park
(Yes, the trees do lean all over the shop)

A flock of siskins flew overhead as I entered Brabyn's Park, they headed for the tall trees beyond the railway line. A couple of moorhens skittered about the pond and half a dozen squirrels bounded round on the grass by the car park. Further in, blackbirds and great tits were throwing a lot of leaf litter about while blue tits, robins and a couple of nuthatches rummaged about in the conifers. There was a steady passage of jackdaws overhead as they gave up on the day and went for an early night.

Arriving at Etherow Country Park a flock of pigeons on the car park lay siege to a couple of tiny tots with birdseed until a crowd of mallards and Canada geese barged them aside. Even one of the mandarin drakes muscled in on the action.

Coot, Etherow Country Park

I wandered down the path. A flock of a couple of dozen redwings flew over and headed for the trees by the church, about fifty black-headed gulls headed the other way, probably to roost on the reservoirs near Glossop. The mallards and mandarins hugged the near bank, the mallards were mostly paired up while the mandarins were still thinking about it with a lot of head-bobbing and whistling. The pairs of coots have established their territories and woe beside any passing coot or moorhen taking any liberties.

Mallard, Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

The river had dropped enough for it to be worth my while looking for dippers and high enough for me not to be disappointed in my birdwatching skills when I didn't find one. A grey wagtail whistled as it flew downriver.

Heron, Keg Wood

I said a very quick hello to Ernocroft Wood and an even quicker one to Keg Wood. Walking up a couple had asked me if I'd seen any herons. I hadn't at the time. About ten minutes later I found one on the river just upstream of the weir, I could see another on the bend of the river visible at the start of the path into Keg Wood, and I was to bump into another downriver of the weir on the way back.

Mandarin duck, Etherow Country Park

The sun set as I wandered back and got the 383 into Stockport where I arrived just in time to have to wait half an hour for the next bus home.

Mallards, Etherow Country Park
One of the photos where I was playing with manual settings.

Using the camera was a little bit easier today, I didn't find myself moving my hand to counterbalance a long, heavy lens that wasn't there and I'm starting to get the hang of the zoned auto focussing which felt a lot random yesterday. I was struggling when I was trying to take photos in really poor light, and this showed when I reviewed the results at home. By pure dumb luck the photos taken with manual settings were the least worst. Bridge cameras aren't as amenable to pushing your luck in lousy light as DSLRs but I think there's a hell of a lot of potential for doing tons better than I have done so far. There's a lot of experiment and practice needed there.

A wolf moon