Sett Valley

Juvenile great spotted woodpecker, Bluebell Wood

Well, what a ropey old night's sleep that was!  It was a cooler night with a nice breeze and the rolling thunder was forecast to carry on until dawn. I dozed off peacefully enough but was woken up by the thunderstorm being on top of us. I was woken not by the thunder but by the dead still humid air. It moved on and conditions became more bearable but could I get back to sleep? Could I buttons. So I charted the course of the dawn chorus from the blackbird kicking in at five to four, the blackbird duel thereafter, the robin putting in the first of its occasional placeholders just before dawn, the wren and the blackcap singing solidly for an hour and the two woodpigeons singing at each other from the chimney pot. The spadgers waited until six to set out in the world and I for one couldn't blame them.

I didn't have the energy for anything ambitious so the three planned days out that have been nagging at me all week stay parked on the shelves. The trajectory of my birdwatching is North and West because that's the prevailing pattern of the local public transport, the more so since my local trains stopped calling at Deansgate so I've lost that simple cross-city connection. In an effort to push against that a bit I decided I'd go over to Hayfield and have a leisurely dawdle along a short piece of the Sett Valley Trail.

Jackdaw, New Mills

I got the Sheffield train to New Mills Central and walked up to the bus stop on the corner. The 60, 61 and 358 go to Hayfield and are pretty regular, the only pitfall is making sure you're getting the bus going the right way — Hayfield or Glossop, not Buxton or Stockport, they all go from the same bus stop.

I got off the bus at Hayfield Bus Station — a bus stop in the car park — and walked over to the corner where the trail starts. It was a Very lovely afternoon but not as blisteringly hot as it has been. A party of swifts screamed overhead, there was a reassuringly rich songscape — blackbirds, greenfinches, wrens, woodpigeons, blackcaps, chaffinches and a great tit — and a nice, easy walk ahead.

Sett Valley Trail 

The hedgerows were busy with robins, wrens and blue tits, and jackdaws chattered as they passed overhead. There was more of the same as I walked into Bluebell Wood, with the addition of family parties of great tits, the weird calls of nuthatches and the songs of chiffchaffs, dunnocks and a song thrush. I would have overlooked the great spotted woodpecker nest, I don't go looking for nests as a rule, but the incessant calling of the youngster stuck in the doorway made it impossible to miss or ignore.

Juvenile great spotted woodpecker 

Bluebell Wood 

It was nice to see some tadpoles in the little pond. All the likely places I've checked out to date have been the casualties of a dry Spring.

Common frog tadpoles

Large whites and orange tips fluttered about the more open parts of the wood. A bullfinch wheezed out a song somewhere in the canopy then stopped short as if it had run out of breath. The jackdaws and woodpigeons had gone quiet. A sparrowhawk casually skimmed the treetops and headed into the village and the soundscape resumed. All except the bullfinch, which was probably exhausted by its effort.

Bluebell Wood 

Sett Valley Trail 

Across the Sett Valley 

I rejoined the trail and walked along as the valley opened up and the river and hills could be seen behind the wayside trees. Swallows and house martins flew high over the valley and a kestrel hovered over the fields over the other side. I scanned the riverside and was puzzled to see the tops of orange heads poking out of the long grass. There were four drake mandarin ducks loafing with a few drake mallards.

Birch Vale Reservoir 

Birch Vale Reservoir is small but picturesque as you look down on it from the trail. A couple of mallards dozed under the trees on the little island. I walked the length of the reservoir then decided to turn and head back to the bus stop. I was out for a bit of a toddle rather than a proper walk. On the way back there was a lot more of the same, with the addition of a young great spotted woodpecker bouncing through the canopy of a small oak tree at least as inelegantly as any woodpigeon, and a coal tit singing by the old level crossing.

Birch Vale Reservoir 

I really don't know why I don't do this walk more often. The scenery is lovely, the birdwatching is good and the walking a doddle. I didn't have long to wait for the Glossop bus. I counted the jackdaws on the rolling green Peak District countryside then got the trains home from Glossop.