Belted Kingfisher, Roach Bridge

So today I arrived at Roach Bridge  at 9:30am with no great expectations because we've had some heavy rain recently and river levels were likely to be high and I didn't expect the belted kingfisher to show. However, as soon as I arrived I checked my phone to find that the bird had been reported at about 8:45am so that was positive at least. Unfortunately though, on speaking to birders on site it seemed to be another example of a copy and paste report which these long stayers often lazily deteriorate into. The truth was that the bird hadn't actually been seen so far, it had only been heard. None of the five or so birders on site had seen the bird and it seemed that the person who had heard it had left, or at least I didn't speak to him.

Fortunately at about 10:15am I happened to be looking in the right place at the right time and suddenly I saw the bird fly out from the cliff right below us and away down the river towards the weir. For two seconds it was a truly awesome view, breathtaking in fact, what a bird. For a moment it was there at close range, slate blue upperparts with white patches in it's primaries, a white ring around its neck and a slate blue head with a large bill. Wow, it was like a different species to the bird that I've seen here distantly on several occasions recently. Most noticeable of all was it's large size which was really obvious today but not particularly obvious previously. But then it was gone and we couldn't relocate it in a three and a half hour search. It wasn't seen again all day and as far as I know, I was the only person to see the bird today, for all of two seconds.....

I do have a very poor photo of the bird in flight from another day which I did consider using here for illustration purposes, but the trouble is if I do that, that will be the (false) image from today which will stick in my mind forever. It's better if I don't post any photos and keep the real image from today stored safely in my memory.

Also today, two common kingfishers and five mandarins.