Brian's birding blog: It just wouldn't go away

Friday, 25 March 2022

It just wouldn't go away

The Belted Kingfisher in Lancashire just would not go away.

Every time it gets reported it reminds me that I really should go see it but I've seen them well in America and this bird is only seen at distance and can involve steep muddy river banks or crossing private land and paying a £10 toll for that privilege which I have no problem with when these tolls/collections are for a good cause. Then there's the risk of failure with some birders visiting four times before connecting with it so you may understand why I haven't rushed to connect. This week I planned to go but other matters got in the way until yesterday when I caught a break which freed me up for today.

I called the Jims and they agreed the trip was worth a go so we set off at 2am arriving in Roach Bridge at 6am. We walked the bridleway and crossed the field to view the river below and were the only birders on site at this early hour. Within a few minutes we'd heard the Belted Kingfisher calling and I quickly found it in the scope sitting in the trees set back a little from the river. It gave great views in the dim early light and we watched it fishing and heard it calling a couple more times. We were joined by another birder and managed to help him get onto the bird before leaving him to enjoy it too. Two other birders arrived as we left and their pace quickened when we told then it was still showing. Back at the bridge we watched a pair of Dippers and a pair of Grey Wagtail go about their courtship. Of note on the drive up was a Badger seen running along the side of the A5.

Belted Kingfisher

Dipper

Our next stop was to be Banks Marsh which is only eighteen miles away. We had little information on the exact location of the target here but made our way down Marsh Road to Old Hollows Farm where we parked up and walked up onto the marsh. Within seconds Jimmy had the Snow Goose in his scope and we all enjoyed great views at x60 through the scope but I failed to capture much detail with my modest (x8) 400mm lens. This Snow Goose has to me got decent credentials arriving with good carriers in October in the north too so I am happy to finally add it to my life list. The finder of the goose was on site and put us onto a Todd's Goose (my second of the year). He also shows me a close in Greylag thought to be of wild origin and later a distant scope view of a Russian White-fronted Goose. Walking back to the car park we enjoyed good views of the nesting Tree Sparrows but I then decided to walk further east in search of Twite. I flushed two Greenshank then found a Merlin which sat long enough for the Jims to catch up and scope too but they'd missed a year tick with the Greenshank. The Merlin took off and flushed a large flock of forty plus Twite which then broke up and some settled on the fence by the car park allowing me to grab some nice images. Wheatear, Great White Egret, several wader species and tens of thousands of Pink foots added to the spectacle and made for a fantastic days birding which will live long in the memory.