Monday 20 January 2025
Sunny spells and occasional showers, light westerly breeze. 2°C
Our small group met up at Cromford Wharf at 08:00 with no expectation of seeing any Hawfinch until at least 09:00. We settled down to have a look at the River Derwent to try and see the Dipper but the river levels were still quite high with very few Dipper perches available and quite definitely no Dipper.
Moving on to the Hawfinch stake-out a male quickly appeared in the tree tops and just as quickly disappeared at 08:35. A few common birds and three Goldcrest entertained us and it wasn’t long before the male Hawfinch reappeared. He was soon calling repeatedly and even started with a few snatches of song. None of which attracted any more birds but the group all said they had never had such good views. The light wasn’t particularly that good but it certainly did show well. We moved to the bridge to get a different angle as it continued to sit in its favoured tree and I soon picked up a calling Dipper.
If the river levels didn’t look conducive to good views no-one told the Dipper as it gave stunning views allowing plenty of photographs and lots of video. At one point as I videoed another briefly joined it.
By now we were ready for a bite to eat and a coffee but the cafe remained steadfastly closed beyond its scheduled opening. This give us time to enjoy prolonged views of a stunning male Kingfisher on the Canal bank.
We made a decision to move onto Carsington Water, passing a roadside Kestrel, for breakfast and coffee. Refreshed we headed out to Stones Island and quickly located the winter plumaged Great Northern Diver. This was initially asleep but soon cruising around like an avian submarine but with one last dive we lost it to view.
Our group settled on searching through the Aythya duck for the two first-winter Scaup. We did eventually get good views but they were extremely mobile and elusive to start with. As we walked around Stones we heard Willow Tit and finally had great views of one as it fed in the Birch trees.
Overlooking the bay to the Sailing Club we had more views of the Scaup and some stunning Goldeneye. It was now time for us to leave and we didn’t manage to find the Red-throated Diver which had been seen earlier but that’s birding… nothing is guaranteed and there’s always another day.
We had a fabulous morning and enjoyed some great views of quality birds. There were absolutely no thoughts of Blue Monday, except the version I played on my way home.
Photos from the tour (click on thumbnail to zoom)
