precautions.tricky.sudden

Ah the modern world. Three words can pin you down to an exact location anywhere in the country.

precautions.tricky.sudden

Before I set out for Redscar woods on the Ribble today I thought it best to take the precaution of letting Elaine know where I was going. After all, it is a bit of a tricky slope to get down at the best of times and today I expected to be there alone following a run of six consecutive no-shows by the belted kingfisher. I didn't want to have an accident and end up lying on the banks of the Ribble for the next couple of days. So I looked on the what3words app and it gave me the three words above as being closest to my proposed destination at Tunbrook inlet. If I'd been allowed to chose my own three words to summarise the events of today, it probably would have been these three. Now all I had to do was explain to Elaine what action to take if I didn't come home. Just give the three words to the emergency services! Half an hour later I was on my way....

I arrived at precautions.tricky.sudden at 9am, to find the river at a borderline height of about 1.8m. Borderline because the bird has never shown when the river has been over 1.75m, apart from one very brief sighting on 27th November which was not reported on Birdguides. To make matters worse, Storm Barra was rapidly approaching from the west, the wind was getting up and it had started raining, albeit intermittently at first. Apart from the discomfort this caused, water levels were only likely to rise.

No sign of the belted kingfisher here but there was plenty to keep me entertained, little egrets, ducks and little grebes, plus a nice variety of woodland birds. Best of all an awesome peregrine suddenly appeared and repeatedly dived at a duck before flying away north over the wood.

After an hour or so I was getting cold so I decided to move location further down river. Apart from the advantage of getting the blood circulating again, it would allow me to view a different section of river, which seemed a good idea since I wasn't aware of anybody else looking for the bird today.

I made my way to the same location that I was at last Thursday which gave me a view down the river towards the weir near Brockholes. Almost a soon as I arrived at exact.guilty.dining I saw it but then it was gone, lost behind trees and vegetation as it flew up stream, back towards my previous location. It was all a bit too sudden, it took me by surprise as I was setting up my scope so it was a balancing act as I looked through my bins with one hand and tried to hold up the tripod with the other. It was clearly a largish bird, flying like a kingfisher, with white patches on it's wings and a white belly. Nothing else it could be but the view lasted about 0.56 seconds. Or was 0.57? Either way, it was too brief. I couldn't even tell how far it had flown. Was it worth going back to precautions.tricky.sudden or should I just stay here and wait? It was easier to choose the latter so I settled myself down and waited. I didn't see it again.

By noon Storm Barra was getting a little too close for comfort so I decided to head for home. It was pouring down and the wind was getting quite alarming. I reported the bird as a possible because of the brevity of the sighting. If I hadn't seen the bird 12 days ago I wouldn't have allowed it on to my list based on todays view, but I did see it 12 days ago and it looked good to me.

Several little egrets are on the river and at least one was on Tunbrook close to precautions.tricky.sudden. For a bird which I'm so familiar with on saltmarsh, it seems strange to see them deep in a woodland, and makes me think that if little egrets can fish on a tributary in a woodland then why not a belted kingfisher, especially when river levels are high and the water cloudy on the main river?

Tunbrook tributary.