Etherow Country Park

Mandarin duck 

I'd promised myself I'd stop beginning blogposts with a review of the weather, a promise made the easier by an uninspiring grey, cool day with a nasty edge to the wind. A woodpigeon had been singing at midnight, the blackbirds started at half four and a teenage gang of a couple of dozen magpies congregated in a corner of the school playing field to strut and boast and try to impress each other. The usual dozen black-headed gulls seem to have moved on, a couple of common gulls and a lesser black-back patiently waited for the lunchtime feast.

I renewed my monthly travel card and headed over to Etherow Country Park, hoping for exotic mandarin ducks in the gloom.

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin ducks 

Mandarin ducks 

A lot of the mandarin ducks were on the pool by the car park with the mallards and pigeons, which is unusual. If there are any at all here it's not often more than a couple. There were plenty more on the little canal as I walked up, pairs or small groups lurking by the banks with pairs of mallards and Canada geese. God knows where the coots have gone off to, I only saw one all afternoon. And the only mute swan was one of last year's cygnets.

Canada goose

The reason why the mandarins were where they were became apparent: there's a lot of tree felling going on beside the river and the pool at the top near the Weir has been drained for repairs.

Work in progress 

I didn't expect to see dippers on the river and wasn't surprised not to see any despite the water being a lot lower than on my last visit. It was nice to see a grey wagtail lurking in one of their favoured spots.

I've been getting a thing about the path round Keg Wood and it's starting to annoy me a great deal. I negotiated that first dip and rise and got that familiar feeling that the knees weren't up to it and took drastic action. Instead of carrying on walking clockwise as usual, or more likely giving in and turning back, I dropped down to Keg Pool and took the anticlockwise route. In part to break the hoodoo, in larger part because giving in and turning back would be a harder walk than just carrying on.

Keg Wood 

Heading down to Keg Pool 

Robins and coal tits sang in the trees. The other titmice went about their business quietly and unobtrusively except when they noticed my passing and told me to move along son. The blue tits and great tits were in pairs, I bumped into a family group of long-tailed tits near the pool. Somewhere over the hill beyond the wood a green woodpecker was yaffling and a noisy pair of buzzards called to each other as they drifted from Keg Wood to Ernocroft Wood with an occasional carrion crow escort.

Canada geese, Keg Pool 

A couple of pairs of goosanders flew overhead as I approached Keg Pool. There weren't any on the pool, just a few pairs of mallards, a pair of mute swans and a couple of dozen Canada geese that hadn't paired up yet. I breasted a poolside rise that caught the wind coming down the valley and I was glad I hadn't done a reservoir walk today.

Keg Wood 

Every so often the sun made an appearance, just long enough to tantalise. The dog's mercury, spurge and lesser celandine were in flower, the bluebells and ramsons in full leaf and full of promise and the walking was good. I climbed up the flight of steps for the path sweeping round to Sunny Corner and bumped into a pair of great spotted woodpeckers chasing each other through the trees. I swapped notes with a couple who'd seen a tawny owl further up the slope. As I walked on the male woodpecker started drumming in the distance.

It's a steady pull up the slope to the edge of the wood and a sharp turn round to Sunny Corner. There were more titmice and robins, nuthatches called from the trees and blackbirds and wrens rummaged in the undergrowth. The green woodpecker called again from somewhere over the field at the top of the hill. 

Derbyshire's over there up the hill

Sunny Corner was quiet. I decided not to stop and wait for anything to come along, I wanted to keep the momentum of the walk going. As I got to the orchard a pair of carrion crows were harassing a high-soaring buzzard and the first of the jackdaws started flying to roost. I don't know where they roost round here, they start to congregate in the village and by the car park and then they just disappear. At a guess they'll be in the trees beyond the churchyard but that's only a guess.

Keg Wood 

I negotiated the dips and rises out of the wood to the accompaniment of a goldfinch singing in a birch tree and a chaffinch singing in a beech. I hadn't heard any chiffchaffs though a small shape disappearing into a holly bush might have been one.

More jackdaws passed overhead as I walked back to the car park and the mandarins were busy feeding by the path after someone had been throwing bird seed about. I just missed the 384 back to Stockport but they're every twenty minutes so it's no great hardship and I got lucky with the connection for the 25 back home.