A superb afternoon down the canal yesterday, Walked from the wharf down to high peak junction and then a little further, but didnt get to gregory's tunnel.
Started off with a nice surprise, very faintly singing and hard to hear over the flapping mallards was a GARDEN WARBLER, my 1st of the yr. This was opposite the little area they have fenced off just above the toilet block. CHIFFCHAFF and WILLOW WARBLER in the same area too, of note a single MUTE SWAN was at the start of the canal, Moving on up COOT and MOORHEN, GOLDFINCHES in abbundance. Mixed in with them were GREENFINCHES. LITTLE GREBES as always one of which is sitting on 1 egg, just saw it as the birds did a changeover. Having a sit down at the junction i wasnt expecting the next bird i saw! I decided to scan the the tree tops of the woods and i get onto a bird of prey, it was flying head on towards me and then it turned a little and started flying straight over the canal in the direction to carsington, to my amazement it was a RED KITE!!! No pic though, just wasnt quite quick enough, This was around 16:50,. I walked on in the hope for dippers but, i only heard 1 at the bridge past the pumping station. 1 interesting chiffchaff which was quite grey on the back and underneath was greyish green and had a pale yellow rump patch, and its call was odd too, just the contact note of "huhu" it was flicking its tail and had dark brown legs!
Here are some noted counts.
22 Chiffchaff,
12 Blackcap,
12 Long tailed tit,
2 jay
2 treecreeper
2 nuthatch
30 goldfinch
4 coal tit
1 final thing i had a superb goshawk today, (but of course im not putting its location down)