There has been some interesting activity along the riversides around New Mills during October. The kingfisher has been seen pretty frequently, flashing past just above the river, but often flying quite high and sometimes perching remarkably high up in trees. The dippers have also been behaving strangely: they have been fighting, forcing each other to crash into the river, and there has been what appears to be courting behaviour, head straight up to the sky singing away, attracting another dipper to visit, followed by lots of rapid feather flapping. I’m not sure that dippers usually demonstrate these behaviours in October, so maybe they are just a bit confused by the seasons. One dipper has also developed a high-risk and energetic feeding technique, where it swims along the lip of the waterfall letting food come to it as the water tries to push it over the drop.
Plenty of smaller birds like goldcrests, goldfinches and tits are noisily chirping away, but often hidden by the foliage hiding from the rain. I did see an absolutely drenched male kestrel perched on a wire, who eventually dried themselves out after a long preen.
Our garden has had a Hedgehog visiting too, which is great, as they are deemed to be at risk of extinction. Hopefully New Mills can be a safe haven for them. It is beautiful out there in the autumn leaves! Enjoy.
John Kitching
