Etherow Country Park

Pied flycatcher, Keg Wood

I waited for the rain to be done and dusted before heading over to Etherow Country Park to see if I could get mandarin duck and dipper onto the tally for the month.

Coot

The Canada geese and one of the mute swans lurked by the car park hoping for goodies from passersby. There were only a couple of mallards and the only coot was sitting on its nest. The little canal was similarly quiet, the few ducks about lurked in the willow roots by the bank. A pair of mandarins skulked under the little bridge over the canal.

Blackbirds, dunnocks and robins rummaged about on the roadside. Blackbirds, robins, willow warblers and a chiffchaff sang in the trees and a green woodpecker yaffled from somewhere over in Ernocroft Wood.

Horse chestnuts by the canal

There was another pair of mandarin ducks on the river and a family of grey wagtails up by the weir bridge. I had no luck finding any dippers. Meanwhile, a pair of blue tits shuttled constantly between the wood and their nest by the bridge.

Keg Wood 

I had a walk around Keg Wood. It seemed quiet at first, just robins and blackbirds singing and a great spotted woodpecker barracking me as I passed by. As I walked in deeper chiffchaffs and blackcaps joined the songscape, blackcaps soon becoming the dominant feature. Woodpigeons, wrens, dunnocks and coal tits joined in and chaffinches sang from the woodland margins up the hill. 

At the bend by one of the sitting areas two blackcaps were having a singing duel with a blackbird singing in the background. A fourth bird piped up, at first I thought it was another blackcap warming up but the song stayed rushed and slightly scratchy and I had me a garden warbler on the tally.

Pied flycatcher

I had a sit down by Sunny Corner. Nuthatches, great tits and a grey squirrel came over to see if I was providing food and gave hard stares when it became apparent I wasn't. A pheasant called from somewhere and blue tits fidgeted about in the trees. A little further along a small pale something flitted through the trees like a butterfly with unusually direct flight. It remained a puzzle until I noticed it alight on a dead branch. Luckily for me it stayed put so I could identify it as a pied flycatcher. I stayed still and watched it catching flies for a few minutes then, as it hasn't been bothered when a couple walked by with a dog I got a few photos taken to make sure I hadn't fallen asleep at Sunny Corner and dreamt it. It was a bonny little bird.

Pied flycatcher

Pied flycatcher

Pied flycatcher

It was obviously a much-favoured perch, the flycatcher was back later on as I was on my way back. I retraced my steps because I knew the knees weren't going to be happy with the slope up from Keg Pool. I'll have to try and remember which bend the dead branch is on, just in case the bird's still around next time I visit.

Pied flycatcher

Pied flycatcher

Pied flycatcher

Treecreeper

A treecreeper on the next tree along was a nice bonus.

Treecreeper

No visit to Etherow Country Park should be without a few pictures of mandarin ducks. The pair on the canal were having a bath out in the open.

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

Mandarin duck

While I was waiting for the bus home at Stockport Interchange I had a look to see if anything was on the river. A grey wagtail flitted about the bankside and a family of goosanders slept under the bridge.

Goosanders, ducklings (front) and duck

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.

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks

It still didn't feel like December. The robins and collared doves were billing and cooing and although it was a grey and cloudy day it was still mild. Mind you that wind had an edge to it. Only the length of the daylight and the colours of the landscape betrayed the month: there are greens and rusts and inky dark browns unique to this month, either because of the light or their being obscured by the other colours of the year. That peach overtone to the sky will soon be succeeded by that January mixture of cerulean blue, acid lemon yellow and vermillion I can never quite capture in photographs or paintings.

I'd had a seriously bad night's sleep where I sincerely considered giving it up and getting up at five with a view to a five and a half hour journey out to North Wales to try and add the bufflehead at Foryd Bay to my life list. In the event it was as well I didn't as it had done a runner overnight. A visit to Marshside was a more sensible option but I dozed off and missed the train out. 

Mute cygnet

Tufted duck

So I went over to Etherow Country Park to have a look at the mandarin ducks and see if I'd have any more luck with dippers than I've had the rest of the year. 

River Etherow 

The river was riding high and fast, too fast for the comfort of dippers, ducks or wagtails. The mandarins were all loafing amongst the drowned willows on the mill pool.

Mandarin duck and mallard

Mandarin ducks

Keg Wood 

I had a quarter of an hour's dip into Keg Wood, my knees weren't up to the rollercoaster ride and it was very quiet so nothing tempted me to push on further.

Keg Wood 

Etherow Country Park