All sorts of ducks on the River Douglas

After some fairly dismal weather these past couple of months I finally managed to get out for a walk along our local river, the Douglas, and as I’m a bit (understatement of the century) rusty I took out my camera just to check it (and me) is working as it should.

There wasn’t really much to see exfcept a lot of ducks including some Widgeon (which make the amazing whistling noise), Teal, Shelducks and the usual suspects of Mallard and Oyster catchers. I tried to get some pictures of them in flight but a small Duck is very very fast so I gave up.

Spring was certainly in the air today though as i saw a few lambs on my way down to the river, thankfully the boys below didn’t have any as it’s best to stay out of the way of sheep at lambing time so as not to distress the ewes and their newly birthed lambs.

"The Managment" of the banks bleats "non shall pass"

They do look a bit like the mafia though and it felt like I was trespassing on their field…

Hopefully, now the weather seems to be changing for the better I’ll get out fishing, it was almost this time last year that we fished this very river and caught a few Flounder – there were a few people fishing today but nobody had caught anything. It seems the seasons are a bit late this year, but i seem to recall someone saying that a cold winter heralds a hot summer – so here’s hoping…

Coma Butterfly

As the weather was so good today I thought I’d take my camera out to take a few photographs in Queens Park, Bolton, which is where I can usually be found wandering around during my lunch hour looking at this amazing space right in the middle of town.

I usually approach from the entrance nearest the centre of town which passes through an abundance of Buddleia, these in turn attract a variety of butterflies, one of which was this Comma as well as the usual suspects of Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady and Peacock.

I could quite happily watch these colourful insects all day but I continue on over a small bridge into the bottom area of the park.

The area where I walk is bordered on one side by the River Croal on which many water birds reside, mainly Mallard, Coot and Grey heron On some days, if you’re lucky you can see a couple of Kingfishers flying up and down hunting for fish or maybe a Dipper running up and down the river bank.

During the spring and summer Brown Trout can easily be seen from the many bridges crossing the river, catching flies from the surface or just lazing in the clear water.

Queens Park, Bolton

My path takes me past the two ponds that are stocked by a local angling club and although there was no one on them today it is not unusual to see people fishing here for the large Carp and many Roach that roam these waters.

The ponds carry a healthy population of dragonflies and damselflies but they’re far to quick to get on camera – there seem to be less now that the weather is getting a little colder with only the larger species present today.

In the past couple of years the local council and the angling club have removed some of the trees surrounding the ponds which I’m sure at the time seemed a good idea but looking at it now, all that extra light has encouraged the Duck Weed which covers almost the entire surface of the first pond so I expect they’ll let a few of them grow back.

Small Tortoiseshell

My walk takes me back down the other side of the river to emerge once again at the lower entrance where today there were so many butterflies a lot of them were just basking in the sun on the Cornus which has been planted as part of the landscaping of the Lads and girls club.

It still amazes me the tenacity of the wildlife in this country. There I was, in the middle of town with a major road not 10 feet away when I heard the unmistakable twittering of a flock of Long-tailed tits, they were perched (about a dozen of them) on a tree, growing out of the side of the main road bridge over the river, almost as oblivious of the traffic as the people in the cars were of them.

Walking back through town I passed a major construction site where a new block of offices is going up. The artists impression looks very good and it can only improve the overall appearance of the area in which it is being built as well as attracting new business to the town.

Blue on Blue

Saying that though, the only reason I took this photo was because I liked the blue crane against the blue sky, makes a change from bright red.

I don’t know how high it is but I bet the man in the cab at the top has a fantastic view!