Magical times with the king of colour
FIRST of all, you see a long-billed, small bird sitting on a post and then, as it takes flight, you spot orange and the blue wings.
Your first thought is amazement that something so colourful is flying around your local beauty spot.
You watch it flash across the lake and wish you had been treading a little more lightly as you approached a wonderful kingfisher.
I didn’t get a really good view but it wasn’t my first encounter with our most colourful bird and every time I come across one it is magical.
It makes me wonder why these bright birds are not more visible on our rivers but their colours are pretty good camouflage between the water and the autumn leaves at this time of year.
And, another thing is that kingfishers are not big birds, not much bigger than your garden house sparrow.
I think most people believe they are the size of crows!
While they will sit on low branches for some minutes, scanning the water for fish, when they are spooked they do dart around.
They will head off to another perch nearby, and that is what happened during my encounter.
I had a treat some years ago, when a kingfisher was sitting, staring at me and the dog from a branch over our local river.
It was probably 30 seconds but it felt like 30 minutes.
It was thinking ‘what a strange and scruffy pair?’
They are not uncommon on North West lakes and rivers so it is amazing that so many people haven’t seen one.
They perch on ‘favourite’ branches where they know there is good fishing.
If you have heard of kingfisher sightings, I would suggest sitting quietly on the bank to see if they are fishing in that part of the river.
Please remember not to get too close and allow the bird to continue hunting for their vital food.
If you don’t disturb them, you will get opportunities to return to the same spot and enjoy similar experiences.
The kingfisher has a bright blue back and a ‘metallic’ copper breast. Males have a black bill, females red at the base of that bill.
They are sensitive birds and do not like icy weather freezing up their feeding pools.
After bad winters, numbers will fall.
They nest in burrows on river banks and these have been weakened by Himalayan balsam and its shallow roots.
The roots make riverbanks susceptible to collapse in heavy rain.
This is one of the reasons that our Wildlife Trust volunteers spend a lot of the year balsam bashing.
Of course, when I spotted the kingfisher I was immediately on the phone to my mum who has never seen one.
I am hoping one day to take her to our Mere Sands Wood or Brockholes nature reserves, to increase the chances of experiencing those blue wings and copper belly.