Belted Kingfisher, River Darwen, Roach Bridge

Finally! Since I last saw the belted kingfisher at Redscar Wood on the River Ribble on 25th November, I've looked for it on eight subsequent occasions prior to today, three times at the original site, three times along the canal at Withnell Fold, and twice here on the River Darwen. I've drawn a blank on each of these occasions. I even called in here at Roach Bridge on Monday and left an hour before BirdGuides reported that it was just 1km upriver. 

For a while it looked like I might miss out today as well, the bird was seen this morning up to 11am but then flew high upriver before I arrived and was not seen again for three hours. Would it return? There seems to be no certainty with this bird and on past form it might have gone missing for another two weeks and then turned up at a completely different location. 

However eventually it did return and I felt that it was only fitting given all of the effort that I have put into relocating this bird that I should at least be rewarded with the excitement of finding it for myself when it reappeared today..... and when I did spot it, what a sight it was! A belted kingfisher flying down the river towards me with a large fish in it's bill, slate blue upperparts with a white belly and a dark band across it's chest. Totally unmistakable! It perched up for 30 seconds on an overhanging branch before flying again and calling, landing in a tree on the other side of the river. 

A couple of minutes later it was back again, this time perching on a dead branch in the middle of the river, where it proceeded to eat its fish before flying back to the cover of the tree.

I watched it on and off for the next 30 minutes or so until finally it flew back upriver and perched high in a dead tree about 0.5km away. It stayed here for a few minutes before flying down to the river and I lost it behind the vegetation. I stuck around for another half hour but the light was now going rapidly so I packed up and left. 

I saw it for longer and closer on the Ribble but it was against the light for long periods, and I was too concerned with getting photos to really appreciate the bird. Today I made an effort to try to spend more time watching it. Both were great experiences though.

The track to the field might not be as bad as the fabled (and over exaggerated) death slope on the Ribble, but it is now getting very muddy and slippy and it would be easy to end up on your backside. Wellingtons are definitely recommended. I can't rule out going again because when there is such a fabulous bird locally you can't see it too many times in my opinion. However the farmer has now introduced a £10 entry charge to access his field, which I don't mind paying once, but when you've already seen the bird twice it's not so great. So if I do go again, I might just view from the bridge which is where I would really like to see it and it's free!

Videos of the bird below...

This is when it was perched half a kilometre away. It flies right at the end of the video.

"It's straight up from the blue plastic bag!".

There were also a few mandarins on the river, and these were actually a year tick, bringing my 2021 total to 249.

The River Darwen. I wonder if the bird might be roosting here? It's a fairly central site between Redscar Wood and Withnell Fold, and the bird seems to be mainly present in the morning and late afternoon and can go missing at midday. Perhaps it spends midday either on the Ribble or at Withnell Fold or places in between. Perhaps it's always roosted here? In fact somebody told me today that the farmer had told him that he had been aware of the bird here for at least six weeks, so perhaps even when I saw it on the Ribble in November it was returning here to roost. It would be very interesting to know where it went today when it flew high up river.

The weir at Roach Bridge.