David picked me up at around 06:30 this morning and we then went and
picked Roger up before heading north to Padley Gorge in Derbyshire. We had a Eurasian Jay as we drove along the
M1 towards the River Trent and both a Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel as we
drove along the A617 towards Chesterfield.
We hadn’t seen a great deal as we pulled up and parked along the B6521 from
where we had a short walk into Padley Gorge.
We walked down the path and over the bridge, seeing a Common Kestrel, to
reach the gorge and heard and then saw a Grey Wagtail as we reached the
woodland. We walked down the path, until
we reached the area where Roger and I had seen European Pied Flycatcher earlier
in the year. I went off the path and
into the woodland to get a better view and found two Eurasian Nuthatch and at
least one Spotted Flycatcher. David had
also come up into the woodland and we then had two juvenile Common Redstarts,
which Roger unfortunately missed but with no sign of a Pied Flycatcher we went
back to the path and walked further down.
From the path we saw quite a few juvenile Eurasian Blue Tits and a single
Coal Tit and heard a Eurasian Treecreeper before we reached an area where we
had seen both European Pied Flycatcher and Common Redstart earlier in the
year. Again, we walked up the slope into
the woodland, seeing another Spotted Flycatcher. Another birder came down the path and after a
brief chat David said he thought he might have heard a Wood Warbler. We walked a few more meters up the path and
it sang again, and I also heard it and as we went higher up the path we had
brief views through a bush it was singing in.
It then came out of the bush and went into a tree alongside when we had
some rather nice views of this attractive phylloscopus. A local birder then joined us, and we spent
time trying to re-find it but only had brief views before it stopped singing
and we lost it. We did have another
Nuthatch before we reached the top of the path, with intention of going out
onto the more open moor. However, we
heard something calling, which we suspected was another Wood Warbler, although
it was only doing the piping part of the song.
As we walked down the path it did give a couple of brief busts of the
trill and we eventually managed to find it, having brief views before we lost
it. Roger then found a Eurasian
Treecreeper and as we were leaving he noticed movement in the top of one of the
trees above the path. I also saw the
bird and we thought there was more than one but then one dropped lower onto a
branch over the path and we a good, but a brief view of a female/juvenile
European Pied Flycatcher and a Siskin then flew over calling but we didn’t
manage to see it.
We had done rather well in the woodland and I was hoping to catch up with
a Tree Pipit as I hadn’t seen one this year, but the local birder had indicated
that they were quite scarce this year, although he had heard one earlier. It was quiet as we walked along the path
through the birches where the Tree Pipit had been heard but with some patience
we heard one and then saw it perched at the top of one of the birches where it
was being buffeted by the wind. Having
scored with the pipit we continued along the path back to the car.
Our nest target was Ring Ouzel at Upper Burbage but on reaching the site
the parking areas were quite full and it looked as though there were several
school parties there. We did manage to
get a parking spot but as we walked down the path to the area we normally see
Ring Ouzel there were quite a few climbers and I wasn’t very optimistic. However just after a had seen a Common
Blackbird fly into the area, Roger found a male Ring Ouzel on the top of the
rocks and we had decent views before it dropped into the rocks and
vegetation. As we walked a little
further two flew out and went further into the valley and we then had a third
amongst the rocks briefly. Pleased with our
success we went back to the car for lunch.
David had seen a White-throated Dipper at Padley Gorge but Roger and I
had missed it and so we decided to go to Hathersage to hopefully catch up with
one. It wasn’t easy parking at
Hathersage and when we reached the bridge there was no sign of any dippers, but
we hadn’t been there many minutes when I picked two up flying towards the
bridge, which perched briefly before going under the bridge.
White-throated Dipper
We had thought about going a walk alongside the river but eventually
decided to head for the Manifold Valley, where we were hoping that we might
find a Common Redstart, which Roger had missed earlier.
Our plan was to drive north and then drop south towards Warslow and the
Manifold Valley. We had turned south on
the B6049 and shortly after crossing the A623 and approaching Tideswell, there
was a warning light regarding the car’s airbags came on. David stopped on the far side of Tideswell
and reviewed the car manual, which gave several possible causes, none of which
were desirable. He then rang his garage
and they advised that he shouldn't go any further until the system had been
checked and he therefore called his breakdown recovery service. He was given and ETA within ninety minutes
and it was just before the ETA that the technician arrived. The technician checked the vehicle out with
an electronic device, which indicated all was well and after calling his boss
and a local expert advised us we were safe to continue and to get the fault
rectified locally.
We had some discussion as to the best way to get home as it was too late
to continue with our original plan. David
wanted to avoid the motorway and Burton upon Trent but to do that we either
needed to go through Derby or travel considerably further and we eventually
agreed the most direct route was to go through Burton. We headed for Ashbourne and then travelled
south to the A50, coming off a couple of junctions later for Burton. As we got closer to Burton I noticed that
there was a bridge closed and that diversions were in place and when we got
into Burton we saw the diversion sign, which wasn’t that clear and found
ourselves at the close bridge. We
retraced our steps and then followed the diversion signs and initially all was well,
and we moved through the centre quite smoothly but shortly after turning onto
the A5189 we ground to a halt. Ahead lay
two roundabouts, a set of traffic lights and two sets of pedestrian lights and
finally two lanes merging into one, and with the traffic gridlocked it took
over an hour to travel not much more than half a mile. Once we were past the two lanes merging into
one we flowed quite freely again and had no further problems.
So, what had started as a good day’s birding finished as being just a
half-day’s birding and lots of frustration.
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