THE RETURN OF
THE KING
by Paul Risley
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The chances of seeing much wildlife along many of our rivers back in the seventies and eighties were slim, few creatures could survive the constant onslaught of agricultural wash-off, Water leaching from old mine workings, overflow sewage and industrial waste draining into the running waters on an almost daily basis, as the rivers flowed through towns and villages it was not unusual to see items such as old bicycles, items of furniture and shopping trolleys dumped into the water or along the river banks, For many creatures dependent on clean rivers for survival the outlook was extremely bleak.
From the 1980’s onward new laws were passed that finally started to take action to resolve the problems causing the pollution, the environment agency were given powers to police our rivers and to prosecute anyone causing pollution, money was made available to clean the waters from the old mine workings by diverting the contaminated water through a series of ponds and reed beds filtering out the harmful mineral deposits by natural means. Fast forward a couple of decades and in some areas now the tide has started to turn, on my local river Trout along with other species of fish have returned after a long absence, further a field on another local river Salmon have been spotted leaping up the river towards ancient spawning grounds for the first time in living memory, as these fish have returned so have the predators that prey on them, none in my opinion quite as distinctive or as beautiful as the Kingfisher.
A flash of sapphire blue and a hint of amber as it flies away is generally the only view most people get to see of the Kingfisher, it never ceases to amaze me how pleasing it is to some people just seeing a fleeting glimpse of this small bird.In 2010 for a few days, I was lucky enough to get past the fleeting glimpse scenario as a brood of young Kingfishers suddenly appeared on the local canal near me and for several days, I was guaranteed Kingfisher sightings at relatively close quarters.Where they nested or came from still remains a mystery to this day. I have ideas and in the few years since I have been fortunate enough to observe them more, I am now a firm believer that kingfishers move their young as quickly as possible away from the nest site towards a well stocked stretch of water or a pond on the edge or even outside their territory, a kind of nursery pool, not only for the benefit of the adults, so they can get on with starting a new brood, but also for the benefit of the young so they have a better chance of learning how to hunt and fend for themselves.
In his wonderful book on Kingfishers the author David Boag stated that parental care in Kingfishers after leaving the nest only lasted for around four days at most before the adults abandoned the young and forced them to fend for themselves. I was very fortunate, the birds I watched on the canal stayed with the parents for at least six days. This was possibly because this was their last brood of the year.
2011 came and with it the desire to find the nesting Kingfishers. Last years sightings had left me fascinated and I wanted to see and learn more about them. Unfortunately with wildlife things have a habit of not going to plan, winter had been one of the hardest on record and it looked as though my Kingfishers hadn’t made it. No matter how much searching I committed to, the birds just weren’t there; I extended my search as much as I could without even a single sighting, March, April and May, the peak times for finding nesting Kingfishers came and went without any luck at all
finally in mid June i get my first big break, I’m in work when I get a text from one of my mates whose out fishing."just seen a Kingfisher flying up the river twice carrying fish". The sighting is about a mile at most from my local patch, an hour later I’ve booked half a days holiday from work and have started to make my way slowly along the River bank checking both sides as I go looking for any signs of Kingfishers.
To say the task of working up a River in June is difficult is somewhat of an understatement, there are area’s that can be quickly discounted but there are also area’s that are virtually inaccessible, there are stands of Himalayan Balsam already 4 feet high hiding clumps of nettles 3 feet high. These both hide area’s of bog. After 40 minutes of energy sapping clambering over fallen trees, trying to push my way through the balsam, being stung by nettles and bitten by an assortment of flies and midges, losing my wellies in the mud on more than one occasion and wet through with sweat, I end up at an area of bog too large and deep to go through on a stretch that looks to have a few promising sandbanks. The River here is too deep to wade up so I decide to go around and try to work back.
I finally get around to the other side to work back, as I get closer to the river something catches my eye. it’s a pile of logs stacked against a tree and covered in moss to form a hide, it is like something from a Ray Mears documentary. what’s more there’s a birder inside it with a long lens camera pointing down the river. I’m pretty sure straight away its got to be set up for Kingfishers. I decide to approach. I start to whistle as I approach so as not to make the guy jump, he turns to face me and says “ hi” I return the “hi” and ask “Kingfishers?” the man responds “ no I’m watching Dippers” the very second he finishes a kingfishers calls and flies past, I can't resist saying “oh a kingfisher” we both laugh, you probably had to be there. We strike up a conversation and he tells me his mate has built the hide and has been watching the nest just down the river since the beginning of the nesting season but he thinks the young have fledged the day before as the adults aren’t using the hole now but carrying the food up river, there’s a feeling of elation at having found the nest mixed with slight disappointment at missing the young fledging. Several visits over the following days reveal nothing, there’s no further signs of the adults or young.
Approximately a month passes before I’m back in the area to check on the woodland nest site, as I approach I’m surprised to find that there’s another birder with a camera watching from the hide. I approach, say hello and start a conversation, I tell him about the other photographer I’ve met here watching the Kingfishers and he explains that it is his friend, He then explains the birds are sitting on eggs again and they usually swap over incubation every hour or so, later when the eggs hatch after about ten days or so they’ll be up and down the river every thirty minutes on average. A perch has been placed across the river but in front of the hide for photography reasons, he then tells me the birds will sometimes land on this and check all round for predators before flying on down the river to the nest. I ask would it be possible for me to use the hide when no one else was there and he agrees it would be ok. I thank the guy for the information and make my exit, the hide is only big enough for one and I don’t want to cause any disturbance or spoil his chances of observing them
Over the next few days I get the chance to use the hide for myself, the information given to me from the photographers turns out to be accurate, the adults usually change over incubating duties anything from 40 to 90 minutes. The time in between can get boring, the nest site is fairly desolate, the only sounds besides the birds and the constant drone of flies are the strange sounds the river makes. These sounds vary from strange moaning noises to sounds like whispering voices. A few times a Dipper would put in a brief appearance, their calls are similar to that of the Kingfisher and at first they fool me, these birds it turned out were nesting further up the river, Jays were also nesting nearby, their youngsters giving their location away every time the parent birds showed up with food. A family party of Grey Wagtails went past on one watch right next to the hide but unfortunately all too quickly.
I’m then stuck in work for a week, my workmate of twenty years called David who is also a Birder finally gets the secret out of me, once I tell him he can't wait to go and spend some time in the hide too, within a couple of hours he's booked half a day off work, made his way to the area, stood in the bog I specifically warned him about, dying one of his trouser legs and one of his white trainers bright orange and phoned up for the directions once again. at least that brightened the day up for me stuck in work.
As time passes the eggs hatch and the adults are seen near the nest much more frequently. After just over a week both birds start to hunt and feed the young and as the young grow the feeds come much more frequently and on occasions the birds make use of the perch opposite the hide, I say occasions because the birds seem to alternate their approach constantly.
By now David and I are starting to act like anxious parents, we’re beginning to check the weather hoping it's not going to rain and if it does we’re hoping it's not for long as it might affect the feeding of the young, just as we start to think everything's going fine a new family shows up in the neighborhood.
Higher up the river valley a pair of Sparrowhawks had raised young, they had now moved into the vicinity. Being that their big cousins, Goshawks, are known as phantoms of the forest, it is only fair to mention the smaller Sparrowhawks share very similar traits, if it wasn’t for the hunger cries of the young you wouldn’t know they were there. Here in their woodland environment these little hawks were like ghosts. Spells in the hide suddenly became somewhat more worrying now with this gang around. You would hear them before seeing them, for example one of the adults would fly past with prey and call, then several young would appear from nowhere and would be in pursuit like heat seeking missiles, a few minutes of madness would ensue to be preceded by an eerie silence as all the other birds went silent. Surprisingly the adult Kingfishers didn’t seem concerned though we were worried! If the young fledged soon we thought they would be picked off one by one. These concerns were further fuelled when whilst watching from the hide my mate David got a feeling of being watched. He turned his head slowly to see a large juvenile female Sparrowhawk staring back at him from the perch placed outside the hide for the Kingfishers to land on, even more worryingly now, the young Sparrowhawks were starting to self hunt as well.
By now it was mid August, the average time from first egg to fledging in Kingfishers is around fifty days, though there are quite a few things to factor in when trying to work this out, such as clutch size, average five to seven eggs, each egg is laid on a different day, incubation time can vary over a couple of days from pair to pair and finally the speed the young grow is influenced by the amount of food available. If food is limited they develop much slower, we guessed the young were roughly due for fledging so every afternoon after work I would drive up there and check to see if they had done so, finally on the nineteenth of August I saw one of the adults fly past the nest hole with food and carry it up river, I follow and eventually find 3 youngsters hiding in cover further up river but thankfully just before the river disappears into private land. There could be more young Kingfishers further along the river; the parents seem to be taking them towards the canal, which would also take them away from the Sparrowhawks. In David Boag’s work on the Kingfisher he states it's not uncommon to find young Kingfishers that have drowned on their first flight by landing in the water and not being able to get to shore. What surprised me is that the young are fairly strong on the wing, flying just like the adults; I had thoughts of them fledging like members of the thrush family, fluttering from branch to branch. Seeing these youngsters flying strong was a massive relief.
Unfortunately that turned out to be the last I saw of the nesting Kingfishers that year, whether they stayed on the nearby private part of the river, took the young to the canal or one of the many ponds nearby I couldn’t tell, they can be very elusive.
THE THREE KINGS
On their way, 3 youngsters moving up the river away from the nest site, technically this is not a good photograph it is what is referred to as a record shot, what it fails to record is the relief and elation of the photographer, it is still a nice reminder of that day
The youngsters have a dangerous habit after just leaving the nest of sitting completely out in the open. In Sparrowhawk and Corvid territory this is not recomended
