Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks (juvenile in the middle)

A couple of new fledgling sparrows were escorted into the back garden this morning to be fed bits from the fat blocks before being shown how to find the sunflower seeds. They didn't stay long — the spadgers don't often linger for more than five minutes at a time at the moment. Unlike the two rather scruffy young blackbirds that emerged from the sycamore a couple of doors down and spent the morning sunbathing on next door's garage with one of the squirrels. The bald blue tit has gone a lot of her feathering back but looks far from spruce, I hope her nest didn't get a mite infestation. I've no idea where any of the titmice nested this year and I've yet to see any young coal tits. It's a bit concerning as it was such a bad late Spring for insects 

House sparrows, Stretford
Adult top left, juvenile top right, recently-fledged juvenile bottom.

The back is better but there's still a nasty twinge that would put me off a long walk (it's a bit like when somebody gave you a dead leg in the middle of a football match at school). I decided that I needed some exercise, even if just a bit of a potter. So I went over to Etherow Country Park to take pictures of mandarin ducks.

I got the train into Manchester, decided I didn't want to hang around Piccadilly for half an hour on a Friday afternoon for one or other train into Marple so got the Hadfield train, got off at Guide Bridge and had twenty minutes checking out the goldfinches and blackbirds by the canal before returning to get the train to Rose Hill Marple and thence the 383 into Compstall.

It was winding down time at Etherow Country Park so I had a nice quiet walk and got a lot of movement back. The Canada geese were out in force, a few black-headed gulls mooched around the car park, the mallards and coots were keeping very low profiles and the mute swans were missing entirely.

Mandarin duck 

The mandarins were all dozing in the vegetation and tree roots by the bank of the canal. The males were all in eclipse plumage, only confidently identified from the females by their red bills. The ducklings were more or less full grown and very much like the females and some of the males already getting touches of salmon pink about their bills.

River Etherow 

A search for dippers or grey wagtails on the river was fruitless. The small bird rummaging about in the stones on the bank turned out to be a juvenile robin.

River Etherow and Keg Wood 

Keg Wood 

I assayed a stretch of Keg Wood and was defeated by the first relatively gentle dip and rise, the problem being that the stiffness was in my leading leg on the climb. It was very quiet save a singing woodpigeon and a blackbird. I caught a wren rummaging in a hawthorn bush and squirrels bounced about the trees.

Bridge by the mill pond

Walking back to the river I had another fruitless search for dippers and wagtails. I wondered whatever happened to the white goose that was a fixture here all last year. A trio of juvenile carrion crows bounced about on the bridge over the mill pond outflow and made rude noises when I intimidated that I might want to cross.

Mandarin ducks 

Raven and buzzard (top left)

I followed the path along the canal to the end then walked along the South bank of the lake. A buzzard floated over from Ernocroft Wood and was quickly joined by three ravens that spent the next few minutes closely shadowing the buzzard as they floated back over the wood.

Etherow Country Park 

On this showing I'll probably benefit from a couple of decent walks over the flat this weekend to get the full movement back. I shall, of course, be reminding the cat of the sacrifices I make for her. It was a fairly bizarre journey back into Stockport on the 384, the sunshine brought out the local characters, and I just missed the connection for the buses home (the 23 and 25 go within minutes of each other then there's forty minutes' wait for the next two of them) so I got the trains home.