Day Out To Etherow Country Park 17th February 2013

Day Out To Etherow Country Park 17th February 2013

We started out by walking up the path between the two lakes where there were the usual Canada Geese and Mallards were present with a smattering of domestic geese. On the right there were lots of Black-headed Gulls on the sailing pond. Unusually this far down there were a half a dozen Mandarin Ducks which were looking particularly fine on a lovely sunny day. A little further up we noted two Greylag amongst the Canada Geese.

We walked up to the weir looking for Dippers but we couldn’t see them. We walked past the Weir Cottages where there was a Nuthatch, Robin and Great tit visiting the log that people put bird food on. We continued up the hill past the John Hirst Cottage and as we looked over at Keg Pool we could see a male and a female Goosander. We walked up through Keg Woodland and up to Sunny Corner. As we approached the shelter there we could see a Great Spotted Woodpecker lift off from the feeder table there and I watched it as it relocated to a tree not too far off. I put some food on the bird table and we sat down to see what would come to us. The answer was nothing so we continued walking round the path and started the descent on the other side of the valley. As we looked back at the feeder log we had waited by for ten or fifteen minutes we could see that the Woodpecker had waited until we left before it returned so we got a second short view of it. Looking at the trees there must be quite a few Woodpeckers around because there were a lot of trees with Woodpecker nest holes in them and, as we walked, we heard two drumming.

On the way down there wasn’t much to see but as we reached Keg Pool again we saw a few female Tufted Ducks and got more views of the Goosanders. At the bottom of the Pool we saw the resident Egyptian Goose and as we came round to the back end of the weir we saw a mixed flock of Mallards, Tufted Ducks and many more Mandarin Ducks. There must be about thirty in total there.

Apart from that we saw a pair of Buzzards and a range of small woodland birds but it was a beautiful day for a walk and we id get two year firsts – Mandarin Duck and Egyptian Goose.

Bird Sightings : Etherow Country Park