This weekend has been a little different regarding dog walks, as Tilly has got a sore shoulder and has been restricted to “on lead” walks much to her annoyance!

So yesterday, we decided to do something a little different and took a walk along the canal side in Chesterfield – just because that’s where we happened to be.

We parked up at Tapton Lock and walked down onto the canal side past the visitors centre and turned left signposted towards Chesterfield.  A joke sign suggested Istanbul was a right turn, but being as we were a bit short of time, we opted for Chesterfield.

It was dusk, so beginning to get a little dark, and almost immediately my attention was grabbed by a luminous blue streak zooming just above the water level of the canal. Now, I’m no bird enthusiast so I didn’t have a clue what I had just witnessed, but my husband is pretty good with birds (ho ho) and he knew it was a Kingfisher! In fact we followed this pretty creature down the canal as it stopped to catch it’s breath on any available branch it could find. Once we had a good view, I could see that it was indeed a Kingfisher with it’s orangey coloured chest. Having never experienced this before it seemed ironic that whilst we appeared to be at one with nature I could hear the constant hum of traffic and the silhouette of the Chesterfield’s Crooked Spire in the foreground.

Needless to say, the walk was cut short by the daylight disappearing, but I certainly would get the map out and have a look to see what longer walks could be done around this area. It’s quite handy as it’s very close to the big Tesco and easy to get to, although parking is a bit rubbish….