Goosanders galore

A cold, misty start to the day with a temperature just above zero and cloud down at around 900 feet. Our house is at 700 feet so I didn't have to walk too far before getting immersed in clouds.

I descended into the valley to walk alongside the River Calder and Rochdale Canal and was pleased to see a female Goldeneye on the canal and a female Goosander on the river. The Goosander was with a few Mallards and all of them were being carried downstream by the flow of the river, towards a small weir. Although the river wasn't the raging torrent it has been over recent weeks there was still a strong flow and I expected the birds to either swim against the flow and move away from the weir or take off and fly downstream. The Mallards did the latter as I expected but the Goosander went over the weir and emerged unscathed. After flapping its wings a few times and giving itself a good shaking down it carried on foraging. Never seen that before, apart from Mallard ducklings that seem to enjoy doing it.

Up to New Mill Dam fishing lake and there were 4 more Goosander, 3 drakes and one duck, fishing away and taking no notice of the lines and warning red/white tape that is stretched over the lake to deter avian predators from taking fish. Two Nuthatch were calling in the trees around the dam and a small flock of Long-tailed Tit were also making themselves heard.

I carried on up the hill to Longfield Dam to see what was there but there wasn't much unfortunately, apart from a pair of Goldeneye and a Pied Wagtail. I was hoping to see Fieldfare and Redwing in the fields during my walk but there was no sign of them today.

Turning towards home I walked round to Lee Dam and stopped for a chat with a friend of mine for an update on the wildlife around the dams (there are 3 of them - Mill Dam, Lee Dam and Healey Dam but only Lee is easily viewable and holds birds on a consistent basis). Two more drake Goosander were there along with 2 Teal and a few Mallard and a Little Owl was on a gate post in the field behind my friend's house.

On the way home another Little Owl was sitting in its usual place in a ruined farm building, but I didn't have good views as the mist had rolled down and visibilty was limited.

Back home and while I was filling the bird feeders in the back garden I heard a Green Woodpecker yaffling from the trees up by the farm houses across the fields from us.

Just under 6 miles covered today.