Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks

I'd started out very tired indeed before what turned out to be a busy night so I wasn't feeling up to much today. Added to that an attack of male pattern hypochondria had me largely reeking of tiger balm, save the right sock which reeked of the camphor and menthol I'm using to ease the Achilles tendon I tweaked badly a couple of weeks ago. Basically, I'm old and everything hurts.

As I didn't feel up to much I thought I'd go over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks and poke my nose into Keg Wood to see some of the bluebells, job done then back well before teatime.

Etherow Country Park 

I got off the 383 at Compstall Village, crossed the road and had a look at the pool by the car park. The usual crowd of pigeons and jackdaws milled about; there were still a few black-headed gulls about, mostly second calendar year birds still with bits of brown to their wing coverts; Canada geese made a racket, mallards dabbled about, a pair of tufted ducks hid in plain sight. I see a lot fewer coots here than I used to, the moorhens are outnumbering then these days.

Very nearly all the mandarin ducks were drakes, the ducks being busy elsewhere. The couple of ducks that were about were conspicuously escorted by their partners. There's proportionally more drakes than ducks here lately, last year's hatching seemed to be mostly drakes. They were ridiculously picturesque in the light dancing about on the little canal.

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck 

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin ducks

There's still a lot of work going on at the head of the canal and the top basin's still dry.

River Etherow 

The river was fairly low and I had hopes of seeing grey wagtails and/or dippers but only saw a couple of drake mandarins suggesting how they would look in the riverine forests of East Asia. I turned to have a look at the weir and a grey wagtail bobbed up to feed on the exposed rocks.

Grey wagtail

I wondered if I could be bothered with Keg Wood today but I wanted to see the bluebells before they went over. I'd give it ten minutes' once-over. I emerged two hours later.

Star of Bethlehem 

The wood felt a bit quiet at first: a blackbird, a chiffchaff and a robin singing, a great tit calling and a couple of wrens bustling about in the undergrowth. After the success of my last visit I was tempted to drop down to Keg Pool and walk round but decided instead to walk straight to Sunny Corner and lay the ridiculous bogey I've had for this walk once and for all. I was rewarded by singing blackcaps, robins, chiffchaffs, blackbirds, coal tits, woodpigeons, great tits and wrens. I accidentally found a couple of blue tit nests, I suspect I found where nuthatches and robins were nesting, too. I'm one of the move along, nothing to see types when it comes to birds' nests.

Keg Wood 

Oh, and the bluebells were lovely, their scent hung in the dips of the walk in the stillness of the wood.

Bluebells 

Bluebells 

On the bend before Sunny Corner I heard a call which was unfamiliar but I knew I'd heard before. A minute or so later I heard it again in the trees and was surprised that I recognised it as a pied flycatcher, I only hear them once or twice a year. I looked up the call of the pied flycatcher on my 'phone and it confirmed my guess. It's not unlike the call of a chiffchaff or willow warbler but it's brisker and has more of a zip to the ending. If you've ever heard someone run their fingernail across a tortoiseshell comb you'll get the idea. I was pleased to hear one but try as I may I couldn't see it.

I had a sit down at Sunny Corner to watch the trees. Any hopes of hearing another flycatcher were drowned by a particularly loud song thrush. Blue tits, blackbirds and magpies flitted about. A great spotted woodpecker worked its way along a branch before being mobbed by a great tit. I'd been sitting still a while when a carrion crow came over to see if I was dead yet.

Stitchwort and bluebells 

Keg Pool 

I walked round and dropped down to Keg Pool where there were more mandarins and mallards and a couple of mute swans were sitting on nests. A couple of large ducks flew over, they weren't mallards or goosanders. They had a look of Egyptian geese but I couldn't get a good enough view of them before they were gone. They may well have been a couple of those "mullard ducks" (Muscovy x mallard) that have been seen here before.

By Keg Pool 

For some reason I keep taking the wrong path along the lake and find myself climbing the steep grassy slope up to the orchard by the cottage. My annoyance with myself for doing it again was immediately dispelled as I listened to my first garden warbler of the year singing from the depths of one of the trees while a blackcap sang from one of the side branches. The rushed scratchiness of the garden warbler was obvious against the bubbling tones of the blackcap though there were still moments when I couldn't be sure which of them I was listening to. A female blackcap added to my portfolio of there was a warbler there a moment ago photos.

Keg Wood 

It was late teatime as I walked back through the wood. In the cooler air the scent of the bluebells had been replaced by the wild garlic which was still very pleasant. It's a good walk, I don't know why I put myself off it, I'm being stupid. Despite all the dips and climbs the joints and tendons were perfectly fine, I hoped there would be plenty of leg room on the buses home so I didn't undo the good work by having to sit cramped up (I struck lucky).

Mandarin duck 

As I walked back to the car park a pair of mandarin ducks dropped down from the trees to the path and were very insistent that I had food on me and weren't for believing I didn't.

Mandarin drake