Goyt Valley

River Goyt 

The day started with another young robin in the back garden. That'll be the third and all different vintages. Have there been three, not two, nests on the go locally or has one pair double-brooded? There's no use in my speculating, I'll never know for sure.

I decided I needed to bounce myself out of my recent doldrums by visiting someplace new. If the birdwatching was quiet I'd still have the fun of exploration. The Goyt Valley between Offerton and Bredbury has been on my radar for a while so I headed thataway. I got the 25 into Stockport and the 358 to St John's Church (I could have got the 383 but the 358 came first), walked down to Hall Pool Drive and followed it round until I came to the footpath that heads to the Goyt Valley.

For the first few hundred yards the path was bounded by a fence on one side and a trees on the other. Behind the trees was a steep bank running down to a brook I can't find on the maps. Every so often the path got close enough for me to be able to see the brook, a small thing that must have been following a fault line in the underlying rocks to have carved that deep, narrow valley. A couple of woodpigeons sang in the trees, speckled woods skittered about and swifts hawked over the fields and rowan saplings beyond the fence.

Goyt Valley 

All of a sudden the fence ended and there was an open field beside the path, sloping down to meet a bank of trees in the valley below. Gatekeepers and ringlets fluttered about the grass while high overhead there was a swarm of swallows, house martins and sand martins wheeling round the interface between the field and the woodland, enjoying the best of both worlds. It took me a while to convince myself that all three hirundines were up there, second-guessing myself until at last I had to concede the point.

Walking down to the river

Walking down to the river

I followed the path into the woodland and took a roundabout way down to the river, keeping the gradients gentle where I could. Aside from the very occasional squeak from a chiffchaff and a couple of contact calls from great tits and robins it was very quiet indeed. As woodlands tend to be this time of year.

River Goyt 

The path I ended up following brought me to the River Goyt at Jim Fernley Bridge. There were a few people about, mainly families taking small kids for a walk and a few cyclists but it wasn't terrifically busy. I looked over the river and scanned the stream-washed gravel in the hopes of wagtails or dippers, or at least a few dragonflies, but found nothing. But it was very picturesque.

Dark Lane

By Dark Lane 

I crossed over and walked up to Dark Lane. Magpies and greenfinches called in the fields and a couple of dozen rooks foraged a couple of fields down from the lane. I debated whether or not to walk down the lane either to Bradbury or Chadwick but decided instead to retrace my steps and explore the woodland by the river. It struck me that next time I come this way (because I will) I might get the 384 from Stockport, get off in Harrytown and walk down this way.

Walking by Poise Brook 

I had a bit of a wander by the river, finding a few dead ends to paths along the way and being sworn at by squirrels, then joined a path running alongside Poise Brook. At first the path ran on a high bank well away from the brook but they soon converged as they ran through the woods. Every so often I would hear a chiffchaff or a robin, a dunnock dived into cover ahead of me. A couple of jays were relatively obliging, bits of pink and blue showing through the leaf cover on an old ash tree.

Approaching Poise Brook 

The further along I walked the fewer people were around. I got to a couple of bridges and crossed over to the other side of the brook. A wren sang in the ferns here and a nuthatch called from high in the trees. There was a bench by the brook so I sat down quietly for a bit and waited to see or hear what might be around. The wren sang again and was joined by a robin singing from the trees on the other bank. I heard a couple of great tits go by as I watched a pair of large whites chasing each other in a clearing just ahead. I was surprised to hear a pied flycatcher calling, my astonishment being all the more because I would have put good money on my not having the first idea what they sounded like. I quickly checked on Xeno-Canto and confirmed what I heard. (Of course I didn't use Merlin, if it can't identify buzzards yelling and bawling a couple of trees away it won't be any use for small, quiet songbirds.)

Poise Brook 

Walking by Poise Brook 

Walking by Poise Brook 

I followed the path down and the trees gave way to clearings filled with Himalayan balsam, nettles and hogweed (not giant hogweed), all rising above my head and I'm a little over average height in my elevated boots. Magpies rattled in trees, woodpigeons sang and a Southern hawker zipped by. Then all of a sudden I was walking down Holiday Lane to Marple Road.

The lane joins Marple Road halfway between bus stops on that long bend that doesn't have a pavement on this side. It's a busy road and you take your life in your hands trying to cross it here. I elected to walk back to the stop opposite St John's so I'd be facing the traffic and could hug the wall by the road if need be. And did.

I got the 383 and seeing as I was passing I got off at Compstall and went to take some photos of mandarin ducks in Etherow Country Park.

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin duck

Mandarin ducks
Even in eclipse plumage I think a mandarin is a very pretty duck

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin duck
Taken from thr bridge by the weir

Mandarin ducks

I looked in vain for dippers or grey wagtails on the river by the weir. Just as I was lamenting this a kingfisher shot upstream then rose suddenly before the bridge and disappeared over the trees. There's no good reason why a kingfisher can't fly over trees just as easily as any starling but it's still a surprise when I see it happen.

Etherow Country Park 

A coal tit was singing in the tree by one of the bridges over the canal on the way back. Further along a couple of buzzards were making a terrific row as they soared low over the lake and Ernocroft Wood.

Buzzard

Buzzard

Buzzard

Buzzard

Buzzard
Not often I manage to get a photo of one hovering.

Etherow Country Park