Etherow Country Park

Dipper

I hadn't intended going to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks. I was headed to Stretford Meadows to see if any whitethroats had arrived. It had been a cool, fitfully sunny day with a wind that cut through your kidneys like a knife after a wild, wet and windy night which I'd mostly slept through. I put the big coat on and left home, walked past the allotments as the rain started, asked myself if this really was the best idea I was going to have today and found myself on the 23 bus going to Stockport. Was I getting off in Chorlton for a walk in the shelter of Ivy Green and Chorlton Ees? Apparently not. Nor having that explore of Heaton Valley Nature Park I keep not getting round to? No… At Stockport Bus Station the next bus out was the 383 to Marple and Romiley. I bowed to Fate. The rain nearly stopped, the sun poked through and I had a walk round Etherow Country Park.

Mandarin duck
A bit of head-bobbing for his lady, and to warn off a passing drake.

Most of the mandarin ducks were paired up. There were a good few unpaired drakes about, they either loafed about together in the tree roots or spent some time getting warned off by pairs of mandarins. The drakes puffed themselves up, fanned out their orange standards and did a lot of posturing about. The ducks cut to the chase and bit the interloper.

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin duck
At rest the fans point in, not out.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin ducks

Mandarin duck
Extreme head-bobbing including making bubbling cooing noises before blowing bubbles in the water.

Etherow Country Park 
(Yes, the beech trees really do lean like that.)

There was plenty else about. Mallards, coots and moorhens were in furtive mode, which is always a good sign. A coal tit was the first singing bird I heard as I walked in from the bus stop. Robins, blackbirds, great tits, goldfinches, blackcaps and chiffchaffs quickly joined in. The odd mix of seasons had swallows swooping over the boating pond and siskins skittering about in the tops of alders. Carrion crows bathed in the river, dunnocks and house sparrows struck poses in garden hedges, jackdaws and pigeons massed on rooftops, a few young black-headed gulls lingered by the car park and woodpigeons were all over the shop.

Carrion crow, drying out after a bath

River Etherow 

On the approach to the wobbly footbridge I looked in vain for a dipper on the river, a grey wagtail was a fine consolation prize, it's been a lean couple of weeks for them. 

The weir 

I was standing by the weir, which was looking the better for not being a single sheet of water, when a dipper flew over, struck a pose on a rock at the top then disappeared under the water, very occasionally bobbing up for a breath before disappearing again. It reappeared with what looked like a caddis fly larva and flitted down to an alcove at the base of the weir to deal with it. I noticed it had a ring on its leg but I had no luck trying to read it. The dipper took off and disappeared, reappeared on another rock at the top of the weir and disappeared again. And then all of a sudden it was back on the alcove. I think it was flying up the weir behind the curtain of water. Given the weight of the water I saw it flying through while it was hunting up at the top of the weir it's certainly possible. Sturdy little buggers are dippers.

Dipper

I had no intention of walking into Keg Wood but the cold and the wind and the rain required me to use the public conveniences near the entrance to the wood and it seemed a shame not to just walk into the wood a little bit to take in the birdsong then I noticed that the bluebells were in full bloom — already! — and I had to go and get a look at the drifts under the beechwood. And so I did. And the two layers of memory foam in my boots did the required trick and I wondered why I was remotely worried about this walk.

Keg Wood, with bluebells 

Keg Wood 

More bluebells 

Keg Wood 

Keg Wood 

Besides the bluebells, and the first of the wild garlic, the wood was filled with birdsong. In fact, the rain falling heavier seemed to encourage it. Nuthatches and a song thrush joined in the medley and a parakeet screeched from somewhere up the hill. Chiffchaffs and blue tits bounced about on wayside twigs. Pairs of great tits saw me off their territories with a selection of sharp ticks and squeaks. Long-tailed tits ignored me completely, coal tits came to see what I was about and robins struck poses and sang. A chap walking his dogs asked if I'd seen the deer, there were three of them kicking about. I said I'd best make tracks home so I don't put them off. The sun came out and it poured down, so like a muffin I got wet taking photos of rainbows behind the trees.

Getting wet

A bunch of drake mandarins were loafing in the willows on the mill pool at the head of the canal. The lighting effects were as outlandish as the geometries of a preening mandarin.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Etherow Country Park 

On the way back a chaffinch joined the songscape, up to then they'd been a conspicuous absence from the assembly. Mute swans cruised the boating pond, the usual pair of Muscovy ducks cruised the canal and a couple of drake tufted ducks had dropped in.

I got the 384 back to Stockport. The bus had hardly left the stop when I noticed a roe deer grazing with the sheep in a field by the river.

Mersey Valley

Orange tip, Banky Meadow

My get up and go had got up and gone but it was a not unpleasant morning with the real prospect of becoming a nice afternoon so I didn't want to waste it by spending all day thinking I should go out for a walk. I decided that Cob Kiln Wood and Banky Meadow would be the least busy local places on a sunny Easter school holiday afternoon so I toddled off in that direction.

The robins, blackbirds and goldfinches were in full song on the allotments as I walked by. Woodpigeons, jackdaws and magpies bounced about on the rooftops of Urmston.

Cob Kiln Wood 

Cob Kiln Wood was in full song. Blackbirds, robins, a blackcap, a chiffchaff and a great tit had been accounted for by the time I'd walked the twenty yards to Old Eeas Brook. Blue tits, great tits and a dunnock scuttled around in the bushes while magpies, woodpigeons and parakeets bounced about in the trees. Dunnocks, wrens and a song thrush joined the soundscape once I crossed the bridge. Goldfinches twittered about but didn't lapse into song and long-tailed tits quietly went about their business in the willow trees.

The plan was to walk along the path past the dragonfly pond. I got as far as the pond but no further, the willow tree that usually leans picturesquely over the path was hovering two feet above it. Even if I could have limboed under it it might have been unwise. I retraced my steps and went the long way round by the side of the brook.

Cuckoo pint 

I'd hoped the cuckoo pints would have been in flower by now but I only found the one, unopened, spathe above ground. I hope I don't miss them when they do flower.

Things went quiet for a moment as a male sparrowhawk zipped past then the songscape resumed as if it has never been interrupted. The woodpigeons joined in, as did two willow warblers, one either side of the path.

I walked through to the river and had a nosy to see if anything was about. A couple of drake mallards drifted about and the regular pair of goosanders were cruising just above the shoals. A dipper had been reported a few times earlier in the week but I wasn't finding it today. I did find a pair of mandarin ducks pottering about in the roots of one of the trees hanging off the Cheshire bank. And a buzzard made a cameo appearance before heading into Urmston.

Speckled wood

I walked down into Banky Meadow. It was a lot quieter this side of the river, I was quite a way down Banky Lane before the first chiffchaff started up, they were joined by robins, great tits and blackbirds, then wrens, blue tits and blackcaps. I suspect they don't like competing with the traffic noise on the Carrington Spur Road. The butterflies weren't bothered, speckled woods sunning themselves on brambles and orange tips skittering about the verges taking advantage of the ankle-high drifts of dandelions. It occurred to me that the season for getting lots of photos of butterflies because the birds don't want to play has arrived early this year.

Orange tip

Bluebells 

When I reached Carrington Road I seriously considered crossing over Carrington Moss into Altrincham and getting the bus home from there. The knees suggested otherwise, they're still recovering from my doing a lot of road walking with cushioned insoles in my boots that could have passed for cigarette papers. It had been a good afternoon's walk, there was no point in being silly about it. I got the 5a bus into Partington and got the bus home.

Thursday toddle

Bridgewater Canal, Worsley 

Perhaps it was the change in weather, perhaps it was the couple of nights' getting home late, perhaps I'm just getting old. In any case me and the knees wanted a bit of a rest today. The arrival of the year's first singing blackcap in the back garden and the spadgers' demolition of another bag of suet balls provided some distraction but I couldn't really settle. So I did a bit of reconnaissance for a walk into Botany Bay Wood.

I've been wondering for a while how to get to Greater Manchester's biggest woodland. I'd noticed that Grange Road in Winton heads that way once it crosses over the motorway and past Birchall. There's a busy bus stop near the Worsley Road end of Grange Road so if this did turn out to be a way into Botany Bay Wood it would be extremely convenient. It was worth a nosy.

It had been cold and wet when I got the 20 at the Trafford Centre. It was cool and cloudy when I got off and started walking down Grange Road. Dunnocks, wrens and blackbirds sang in the gardens as I walked down. Goldfinches, house sparrows, great tits and woodpigeons fidgeted about in trees and bushes and starlings hopped about the television aerials on the chimneys. As the road reached the motorway it took a sudden left turn. Straight ahead was the start of four minutes' worth of footpath into Worsley, the local bit of the Port Salford Trail which stretches intermittently from Barton Moss to Worsley. I turned left and followed the road over the motorway.

I've seen fewer Keep Out signs on Ministry of Defence research installations. I turned on my heel and walked back.

Port Salford Trail

I did the four minutes' walk into Worsley. The path runs beside the motorway the whole length, robins, blackbirds and a song thrush managing to compete with the traffic noise. At the end I walked down to Worsley Road. A buzzard floated past, it's one I see quite regularly from buses at the motorway interchange. I saw the bus to the Trafford Centre go by as I reached the main road. While I was waiting for the next one I had a mooch by the Bridgwater Canal.

It was still cool but the sun came out and clouds blew away so the canal by the Packet House and Worsley Delph was looking picturesque. Three mallards cruised past the narrowboats. Three Canada geese had a fight near the Delph. Blackbirds, robins and goldfinches sang in the trees. For a moment I was tempted to walk down the canal into Boothstown. The temptation passed and I got the next bus back to the Trafford Centre and thence home.

An hour's very gentle walking had got me some exercise, crossed a possible walk off the list and given the knee something to grumble about. I got home and inspected the boots: the soles were sound enough but the memory foam insoles I'd put in to soften the walking  were as flat as sheets of paper and functionally useless. Replacing them won't stop the knee from grumbling but the bugger will have less excuse for it.

Merseyside bumper bundle

Garganeys, gadwall, tufted ducks and shoveler, Ainsdale Sands Lake

When I first started year-listing seriously the temptation was to go haring round chasing reports of this, that and the other. That temptation still persists, particularly during exceptionally juicy bits of Spring and Autumn passage, but I've settled into the less stressful process of just getting out there, having a walk and see what I bump into. Which doesn't mean that I won't visit known migration hot spots or that I'm not going to make a detour if something turns up nearby. And so it was today: the plan was to have a walk along the Wirral coast between Hoylake and Leasowe, which is usually busy with Spring migrants, then head over to the Sefton coast, anywhere between Seaforth and Southport, to see what else might be about and in the end followed a report of a pair of garganeys at Ainsdale Sands Lake and got some very nice views of them.

A male white wagtail cavorting on the roof of Birkenhead North Station as the train stopped there was a reminder that migrating birds will be where they'll be regardless of human expectations.

Hoylake Beach 

I got off the train at Manor Road and walked down to the promenade. I was expecting to find pied wagtails in the salt marsh and hopefully a few white wagtails amongst them. It was low tide and to say the salt marsh was barren would be almost an understatement. It came as a relief to find a pair of mallards dozing in a puddle. Then a curlew wandered into the edge of the marsh to complete the crowd scene. There wasn't a great deal of cover on the marsh, there are ongoing efforts to stop it encroaching on the beach. The countless millions paid to Dutch engineers over the centuries to reclaim land from the sea and when Mother Nature does it for free people say: "Don't like."

Redshanks

The hordes of waders that are a feature of the coast here in Winter were but a memory. There were a few redshanks dotted about and an occasional curlew. Most of the herring gulls and lesser black-backs loafing sporadically on the mud were subadults. And aside from a great black-back and three pigeons, that was the full offer from the promenade to the groyne, and I thought it was quiet last time I visited a couple of weeks ago. I met a group of birdwatchers who told me the common was fizzing with Spring arrivals. I wished them better luck than I'd had along the prom.

Silver Y moth on dandelion

I gave up on the revetment and walked through Meols Dunes to Leasowe Common. Most of the time I was picking my way through swarms of mining bees buzzing about at ankle height. Bumblebees, butterflies and silver Y moths fussed about carpets of dandelions and red dead nettles and moved out of the way of clumsy old men.

Linnet

House sparrows, collared doves, starlings and woodpigeons fussed about the caravan site and a kestrel watched over them from a treetop. Out on the dunes the gorse bushes were in full flower, the air was thick with the scent of coconuts and the bustling about inside the bushes turned out to be linnets, sparrows or both. Stonechats preferred the bramble patches, fly-catching from the highest twigs.

Stonechat

I started hearing chiffchaffs on my approach to Leasowe Common. By the time I joined the path in, they were joined by robins, greenfinches, blackbirds and blackcaps. Over in the paddocks there were a handful of wheatears and a couple of white wagtails flitting about between the horses.

Walking by the pond 

Dunnocks, great tits, goldfinches and wrens joined the songscape as I took the rough path into the woodland around the pond. Such was the noise I could barely hear the reed warbler singing deep in the reeds. And then the Cetti's warbler exploded into song. The water rail squealing as it disappeared into cover might as well as saved its breath in trying to compete with the others.

A very fidgety chiffchaff landed in the small bush by my side and started singing

The same chiffchaff, this was his more usual pose

Chiffchaff 

I looked in vain for redstarts and ring ousels in the paddocks, finding blackbirds, woodpigeons, greenfinches and house sparrows. There was more of the same behind Leasowe Lighthouse together with some chaffinches and magpies. My first whitethroat of the year sang from an elder bush by the car park. A few swallows flew in and one perched on the telephone wires above my head and posed nicely for a photograph.

Swallow

At first glance Kerr's Field looked quiet, a few woodpigeons and blackbirds, a curlew and a quartet of sleeping little egrets that would have made a nice picture if a gate wasn't in the way. I let on to a couple of birdwatchers I've met here before and we compared notes. We were all a bit disappointed at the lack of wheatears and wagtails on here. We went out different ways, they to look round the common and me for Moreton Station. I had one last look back and saw a pied wagtail pop up from a rut in the field by the land drain. A white wagtail scampered up a rise and started rummaging about the margin. Then I noticed there were five wheatears in the far corner. All had been invisible before, it was only because the path rises to meet the road I got the necessary point of view. That last look back over a landscape is so often productive.

The wheatears on Kerr's Field kept their distance

I was thinking of moving on to Crosby Marine Lake but felt a bit lukewarm about crowds on a sunny Easter school holiday afternoon so I checked on Bird guides to see whether anyone had seen anything interesting elsewhere. A pair of garganeys had been seen on Ainsdale Sands Lake, which was also on my to-visit list, so off I went.

The walk from Ainsdale Station to Ainsdale Sands Lake feels longer than it really is. It's less than a mile but the road's dead straight with houses each side so it seems to go on forever. I got to the lake, sat down on a bench to give the knees a break, looked up and a pair of garganey swam past. In snooker they apologise for a fluke.

Garganeys and gadwall 

Garganey

Gadwall, garganey and shoveler

Garganey and tufted duck

Gadwall and tufted duck

Shoveler

Tufted duck

Garganeys, drake below

Garganey 

Garganey and gadwall

Pairs of mallards, gadwalls, shovelers and coots pottered about. The tufted ducks seemed to be making an effort not to look like being in pairs. A pair of great crested grebes were nest-building. As I walked round the songs of willow warblers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, great tits and coal tits almost drowned out the sound of skylarks singing overhead the dunes beyond. Wrens and blue tits and a pair of long-tailed tits bounced through the willow scrub. Only as I came to write this did I realise there were no robins until I went back to the road. I finished my walk round, had one last appreciative look at the garganeys as they headed for cover and walked back to the station. It isn't often I get to see a garganey close to and out in the open and still more rarely do I get to see a pair.

Ainsdale Sands Lake 

Checking the trains it turned out that I'd get home quicker via Southport than Liverpool so I headed that way, getting the 49 bus to Southport to save my walking all the way to Ainsdale Station. I can only think the weather's on the turn giving the complaints from the knees. From the train back to Manchester through the West Lancashire Plain I added a pair of red-legged partridges, a grey partridge and a female marsh harrier to the day's birdwatching tally. And I'd added three more to the year list with reed warbler,  whitethroat and garganey.

Meols Dunes