Day Out To Etherow Country Park 14th April 2011

We were looking for somewhere to go for a walk that was quite near us but which we hadn’t been to before so we looked in “Where To Watch Birds : North West England & The Isle of Man” by Alan Conlin, Chris Sharpe, Judith Smith, J.P. Cullen Dr., et al. and came up with Etherow Country Park and Local Nature Reserve which has a web site here.

Once part of the estate of a cotton magnate, the reserve is now an interesting site that combines duck pond and sailing lake with riverine woodlands and small pools and mature woodland. The further you go into the site, the fewer people there are so whilst there are a lot of children and dog walkers etc., the further reaches are very peaceful and full of birds.

You can get a free map of the site from the visitor centre which is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and open on Wednesdays from 2pm – 4pm. Thursdays to Sundays is 10am – 4pm. I imagine it is really busy at weekends with joggers, anglers, dog walkers and families so a weekday is best for bird watching.

We started off at the pay and display car park next to the visitor centre (70p for an hour and £1 for 2 hours) and cafe (where there are toilets) and walked around the main pond where there were the usual ducks and geese. As you move further along the path you come alongside the River Etherow where we saw a couple of Dippers – the first of the year for us.  At the weir we also saw Mandarin Ducks which breed in the wild here. From there you can turn to the right and walk into Erncroft Wood. If you go this way but bear a little to the left you come to a path that leads up to a private farm. Just before you get to the farm gate there is a separate entrance gate to the left that leads to a hide that overlooks a pool. There is a bird table there and the birds are used to coming down from the trees for food. We saw Nuthatches and Tits there but there is sometimes a Kingfisher to be seen and some water birds.

At the weir you can also turn to the left and walk up past Weir Cottages and up into “Keg Woodland” a mature woods with lots of birds. The walk is gradually uphill and at the top near “Sunny Corner” there is also a bird table and there we saw Great and Coal Tits and lots of Nuthatches. From here we could hear a Woodpecker but we could not see it. On the way back down we saw a tree with a Woodpecker nest on the side of it but we still couldn’t see the bird itself. We managed to spot a Chiffchaff on our return walk past Keg Pool. In all it was about a three mile walk round trip and took us a bit over two hours including many stops to look for birds.  Our full list of birds spotted was :

Bird List

How To Get There

1. Head south on Chequers Rd toward Beech Rd : 308 ft
2. Turn left at Beech Rd      : 0.2 mi
3. Turn right at Barlow Moor Rd/A5145       : 1.2 mi
4. Turn right at Princess Rd/A5103 :               0.6 mi
5. At junction 5, exit onto M60 toward Stockport/Sheffield/M67/Leeds/M62 : 6.6 mi
6. At junction 25, exit toward A560/Bredbury :        0.3 mi
7. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Crookilley Way heading to Bredbury/A560 : 0.2 mi
8. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Ashton Rd/A560 heading to Bredbury  : 0.4 mi
9. Slight left at Ashton Rd : 256 ft
10. Slight left at Stockport Rd W/A560 :         0.3 mi
11. Turn right at Lower Bents Ln/A6017 – Continue to follow A6017 : 0.8 mi
12. Continue onto School Brow/B6104 – Continue to follow B6104 : 2.2 mi
13. As soon as you get to the village of Compstall take an immediate left at George St. Unbelieveably there isn’t a signpost for it and it isn’t visible from the road. There is a sign for a church to the left just as you enter the village – take that left turn to get to the car park. If you go through Compstall you have already missed it.

 

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Click Here for An Etherow Country Park Site Map