Tales from the Riverbank by Chris Beever
The Charismatic Kingfisher
There is one place that always inspires me to get out the hide and watch the world go by cocooned in my invisible shell and that’s the river.
With over forty thousand rivers, streams, outlets and brooks in the Lancashire area alone and the huge effort that has taken place to clean our river systems from the pollution of days gone by, you can always find a secret place of your own to wait and watch the world of wildlife pass you by.
No matter what location you choose you can always be guaranteed a sighting of at least one wee beastie that uses the river as a home and hunting ground, water voles, dippers, otters, moorhens, and mallards are the usual suspects but now and again you can stumble across something special, and just like you and me most animals and birds need to drink.
With winter a distant memory I decided to visit a local Lancashire woodland that I have been studying for a number of years, my aim on this occasion was to watch and photograph the Emerald Spitfire of the river, the Charismatic Kingfisher.
This cheeky little fish eater is often just glanced as he darts down the rivers surface leaving behind a blur of blue in its wake, but have you ever seen one of these magnificent birds close up, they are truly beautiful inhabitants of the river bank.
As always me and my loyal companion Alfie packed up our butties and flask and headed off to our hide that we had set up the night before near a favourite fishing spot of my recently named kingfisher friend Fred.
Two months worth of work tracking and getting Fred and his recently acquired lady friend used to my company was hopefully going to prove worthwhile, with a quick goodbye to the other half (fiancé or the boss as most of us Lancashire lads hate to admit) and a quick wag of the tail and kiss on the cheek from Alfie we set off in the eager beever van on a mission to add Fred to my ever growing collection of images.
With the sun just rising over the woodland causing the morning dew to evaporate and rise up like eerie fog through the trees and with the birds of the forest starting to announce the arrival of another fine summers day, we walked to our secret spot and made ourselves comfortable in our home for the next six hours.
With Brown Lab pup Alfie(more like a big cuddly brown bear than a 9 month old puppy) settled onto his bed peeking cheekily through one of the hide openings and my camera gear set and ready to go we waited for the first signs of Fred.
A quick look into Fred’s favourite deep pool in the river filled me with excitement as I could see little roach and minnow swimming round in shoals, unaware that the breakfast time bell had just rang for Fred.
A matter of minutes passed and true to form Fred announced his presence with a trio of loud shrill whistles as he whizzed around a bend in the river towards our location.
A quick flick back of the bright blue butterfly like wings, and there he was in all his glory bathing in the first rays of dappled sunlight.
With a few bobs of his head that makes him look like he is listening to bob Marley, he began his morning ritual of bathing before getting down to the business of breakfast.
Time and time again he launched his aerodynamic body into the crystal clear water, with wings swept back attempting to spear his victims with his large ready made spear, and after a few goes and a few misses he sprang back onto his fishing perch and held up a small pike in his magnificent beak as though to say ive got my breakfast where’s yours, with a few clonks on the fishing perch the baby pike was no more, it always amazes me how such a little bird even taking into account his excellence as a hunter, manages to catch fish nearly the same size as himself and more often than not eat the lot in a matter of gulps without sharing.
This time cheeky Fred was not eating and with a few more bobs of his head and a blur of blue he was off, back the way he came with his head hung low carrying the freshly caught fish “what’s going on I asked my other personality” “why is he not eating his catch” seconds passed and there he was again back in his fishing spot and back into hunting mode, over and over again he returned and left, always carrying his catch headfirst away and around the bend in the river.
For a wildlife photographer a scene like this starts the old curiosity and just like the fair maiden in a horror movie, I just had to go and look, with Alfie snoring away through his morning snooze I slowly and quietly made my way around the rivers bend, and what a sight for sore eyes there he was my old mate and his lady friend smooching up under an old oak tree on a perch I had placed there a couple of months ago, but hang on a minute there’s another, a smile stretched its way from my left ear to my right, it seems my little friend has been a busy chap indeed I thought as I watched mum, dad, and jnr passing the fish between them as though to say “no you have it”, “no you have it I insist”, and with a disapproving nod of the head from Fred as though to say “well if your not going to eat, I suppose its more for me” and a quick spin of the fish and a gulp the fish was gone.
With a quick look up at me and a little chuddar that was probably a moan at me for watching the family eat, good old Fred returned to his fishing spot and commenced his fishing, after spending a few more hours watching Fred catching fish and take them to his family I decided that it was time to leave him to bring up his young chap and go in search of more of my friends of the riverbank.
Maybe Walter the water vole was out collecting his breakfast, or Mary the mallard was taking her young family for a morning dip, come on alfie lets go and see Walter, a quick fold of the hide and a quick sort through my camera gear and we set off both munching our butties, glad at the fact that we had done so well on our latest early morning adventure.
Tips & Tricks of the Trade
1: Listen for the loud trio of whistles or peep, peep, peeps to locate your kingfisher
2: kingfishers generally use up to 4 favourite perching places to fish from so if you see a kingfisher fishing happily over and over again record the time and location and return the day after.
3: Kingfishers usually use the same area for breeding year after year look for holes in the steep river banks with fish bones near the entrance if you find one you can return year after year and watch these magnificent birds, but please never approach use binoculars or a long camera lens or spotting scope to get closer to the action.
4: The breeding season starts off in early may and the first chicks usually appear in late June with the chicks leaving mum and dad by the middle of august to find there own fishing spot and territory on the river.
5: The easiest way of attracting a kingfisher is to make places on rivers that the kingfisher can fish from try sticking long dead branches into sheltered banks overlooking small clear pools that contain plenty of small fish.
6: Never push your luck with these little chaps, find a place and sit and wait and let the kingfishers come to your man made or lady made fishing perch, if you do this the kingfisher will accept you as one of there own, and you might even get one coming closer as Fred does to have a quick look at the camouflage clad human.
Whatever the weather there is always some type of wildlife out there waiting for you to go along and find it, so get your boots on and find your own little friends from the river bank.
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