Belted Kingfisher, River Ribble

The Ribble's near mythical belted kingfisher which has been just upriver of Brockholes, opposite Redscar Wood, since at least 8th November, finally gave itself up to a wider audience today.

Before today it was as elusive as a sighting of Father Christmas because despite extensive searches of the river by a dedicated band of experienced birders over a nearly three week period it's only been seen very briefly on one further occasion since the initial sighting. This is partly because large parts of the river are inaccessible, private or just downright dangerous in places, and there's even been stories about birders being injured in tough and difficult terrain when trying to get down to the river. 

Largely because of these issues there's been some uncertainty surrounding the bird, with the only photo available being of poor quality leading some commentators to suggest that it was actually a photograph of a great tit! It didn't look much like a great tit to me but neither could I be sure that there was a belted kingfisher in the photo. 

So when the bird was reported again this morning for the first time in 11 days I almost didn't bother going because I was so certain that I had no chance of seeing a belted kingfisher today, let alone surviving to tell the story. However thank goodness I did go, because this was certainly no great tit!

I parked at Preston Crematorium and then a short walk was followed by a scramble down a steep cliff to the banks of the river. It wasn't so much the steepness of the cliff that was the problem, it was the fact that it's a mud slide down to the river, and great care was required. 

The bird was on show about 200m down river when I arrived but after a few minutes it flew towards us and past us calling as it went before perching on top of a hawthorn bush on the other side of the river about 100m away. It stayed here for another 5 minutes or so, often displaying its crest before flying across the river to our side but frustratingly out of view.

Over the next 30 minutes it was seen well both in flight and perched until I decided to leave at about 14:30. I believe that it remained here until about 14:50 when it disappeared east along the river and was not seen again all day. If previous form is anything to go by that'll be the last sighting until about mid December. 

My first in the UK but I have seen them on both my trips to New York in 2009 & 2012. This brings my UK list to 438 and my North West list to 374. A great bird and well done to the original finder and also the locals who persevered with the search even when it seemed a lost cause. It's the fifth for the UK with the last "twitchable" bird in Staffordshire in 2005, though there was a single day bird on the Isles of Scilly in 2018.

It's a big bird, similar in size to a jackdaw and this was particularly evident when a kingfisher flew past which was about half the size. It's a male with a single blue band on its chest, a female would have two bands, blue and chestnut. 

Unfortunately due to the perceived difficulties in getting down and then back up the cliff, I didn't take my scope and tripod so I had to rely on other birders allowing me a look through their scopes. This also  meant that digiscoping was not really an option and the above photo is the only one I could get, and even this was handheld.

What a fabulous bird, I really didn't expect to see this when I set out this morning.

Photo: Belted kingfisher twitch 25/11/2021
© Bill Aspin

In the above photo, I'm the guy on the edge of the water with the pale trousers, about 9th from the right.

The bird is in this photo, almost exactly in the centre. This is where the bird was showing when I first arrived.

It's also in this photo, slightly easier to see just north east of centre. This is the original of the cropped photo at the top of the post, I love the colours on it.