Belt and braces

 On the 8th of November last year a strange bird was seen on the River Ribble in Lancashire. A very poor photograph was widely laughed at as being of a great tit. The photographer swore it was a belted kingfisher. A bit of an exchange on twitter got nowhere till a week later when the bird was seen again and this time was positively identified as a very rare bird indeed. Cue a mad rush to go and see it. The only problem being that access to the river was down a "slope of hell" of almost vertical mud. Many tales were told of dislocated shoulders and the like but a lot of birders got to see it. It then disappeared from there only to reappear a bit further down the same river in a more accessible location. A combination of Xmas, bad weather, distance and bad timing meant I couldn't get to go and see it. It then disappeared again and I thought my chance had gone. 

About a week ago though it popped up again in the same place. It had probably not gone anywhere, just people had stopped looking. This time I was determined to see it as it is a full-fat lifer.  The best gen was that it was showing well first thing, then being more sporadic throughout the day. My plan was therefore to get to the site at first light. Only problem was that the site, at Roach Bridge, is 220 miles away. Even by my standards I had a very early start, with the car leaving the house at 2am! An easy drive got me to the village as dawn was breaking, around 6am. Andy, one of our casual twitchers group, pulled in behind me and we both set off for the short walk up a lane and across a field to get to the view over the river.

The river was a long way below us but looked really good kingfisher territory. The belted kingfisher we were after should be in the USA so is very lost. It had been in the area for 4 months at least now so it must be happy. As well as the river there is a lake nearby which it uses for fishing.

As the dawn broke and a weak sun started to lift the mist a bit we were joined by another 6 or 7 birders and we staked out the few viewing points to look down the river.

After a couple of false alarms with a common kingfisher flying around we heard a very distinctive rattling call at just after 7.30. It is a very vocal bird and this was a sure sign it hadn't departed overnight. For 5 minutes we could hear it but not see it. It was eventually spotted not by the river but high up in a tree back from the bank albeit at extreme range!

This is an uncropped image with a 500mm lens and a 1.4x converter. The mist dulled all the colours but it stood out well from the still naked trees.

It is much larger than our kingfishers. This is a male bird, told from females by the lack of any orange banding on the body. It sat in the tree for a few minutes, long enough to give all of our group time to get onto it.

Over the next hour it showed occasionally in the same area bur didn't seem to be very interested in fishing.

Finally it flew off again upstream and I took that as my cue to leave. A superb bird and one I was extremely lucky to get to see as it could have gone at any time over the last 4 months. It left a very happy crowd of birders to go about the rest of their day.

Near where I parked the car a dipper was showing distantly on the stream by the road - another year tick for me.

By only other target for the day was a snow goose near Southport on the coast. I've not seen one of these since I was a kid so the chance to get one now wasn't to be passed up. By the time I got through Preston it was close to 11 and the day was very unseasonably warm. The coast all along was full of pink-footed geese, probably thousands of them, and in amongst them was one white bird! Fortunately it was reported to an area  called Banks Marsh which I located and headed over to. Another birder was leaving the site and pointed me in the right direction. He said the snow goose was distant and he was not wrong.

This is only a small section of the massive goose flock I was scanning through. There is a lone white goose in the centre of the picture. I've checked on map and it's about 1.5km away! Good enough for a year tick but I don't think I'd have it for a lifer.

With a long drive home I called it a day and wended my way back. A very long but a very good day. Takes me to 398 on my life list and 176 on the year list. 

A driech day

It's now well into the year and the list is going pretty well. 158 before today, which is not a record but is pretty decent. I've also missed a lot of commoner ones in favour of focusing on higher tariff birds so overall I'm pretty pleased. With Spring just starting and the first sand martins arriving I decided to have a go at seeing some of the residents I've not caught up with yet this year.

First stop was an old favourite, the lesser-spotted woodpeckers at Santon Downham. They are one of the more reliable pairs of these rapidly declining birds and are also one of the most well-known. Many pairs are now suppressed to protect them but these are both well-known and accessible. A 10 minute walk along the river path from the car-park got me to the area where they are. Four other birders were already there but I quickly ascertained that they hadn't shown yet. The was when the problems started. First, they are only two small birds in a large area of woodland and even without leaves on the trees are pretty elusive. The best chance to find them is to locate them after they have called. The weather though was against us. You normally picture birds sitting up in there top of trees in a warming morning sun and declaring their territory. Today though was one of those days when it was never going to get light and the birds were essentially silent. Heavy cloud and a light occasional drizzle gave then morning a very flat feel. We waited by the bank for about an hour with only a pair of mandarin ducks flying around to keep us company.

One of the other birders commented that the light was so awful that even the mandarins looked black and white (the photo above is heavily messed-about-with!). Eventually we had a call from the wood behind us. The lesser spot has a sharp yikkering call, a bit reminiscent of a kestrel to my ears. It only did it once though and before we could get onto the bird in flew off across the river and into the trees where we watched it feeding for a minute before it flew again.

Another half-hour of no action followed before myself and the two others left decided that it was as good as it was going to get and packed up. I passed about a dozen people heading along the path towards out spot and gave them the bad news that they were probably in for a long wait!

My second stop was a Cockley Cley, only 15 minutes away, for the goshawks which have two nests nearby. I parked up in the lay-by and was joined in short-order by my new friends from the lesser-spot twitch. The weather hadn't improved. In fact for raptors it was about pretty useless. The light was bad and we were looking for birds at pretty long-distance. There was also no wind whatsoever which meant they were less likely to do their display flights. We stayed for just over an hour but there was no sign. I did add woodlark to the yearlist and was entertained by a few hares in the fields.

My last stop was again only a short drive away. Lynford arboretum is home to hawfinches and I had been there a couple of weeks ago for them. My target this time was the firecrests which inhabit the holly and ivy near the cafe. One of my new friends was already there with the same idea. First though he used a bit of local knowledge to put me onto a roosting tawny owl in a tree near the bridge. I knew they were there but had never before managed to find them. I realised why now as you to stand in exactly the right spot to get even a partial view of one of them high up in the tree.

I finished off by locating the firecrest just down from the cafe, which had just supplied me with a very tasty sausage roll! As with the theme of the day the light was truly awful and it was in thick shade but I did manage to grab a few shots before it disappeared.

By now the weather was closing in and there was rain on its way. I passed up on the opportunity to go for anything else, which would have been a stretch anyway. Four more ticks for the year, taking me to 162. Not too bad considering the weather and I only missed the goshawks which should be gettable later on anyway. Still a few common birds to go for and with migration  starting who knows what else might turn up!