Belted Kingfisher. Samlesbury, Lancashire

On the 8th of November last year, a birder/fisherman was spending the day fishing on the River Ribble in Lancashire when a Belted Kingfisher came flying down the river towards him! You can read his account of the sighting here. There were a few sceptical remarks about the sighting but after no further confirmed sightings for sixteen days the bird was finally found in a tree bordering the River Ribble north-east of Brockholes LWT. To have any chance of seeing the bird you needed to navigate a steep muddy vertical slope and there were also warnings about keeping an eye on rising water levels. 

The last sightings at Brockhill were on the 30th of November, and it wasn't until the 20th of December that the bird was again found. This time along the River Darwen at Samlesbury. The bird could be very elusive, with numerous birders dipping it and having to make several trips before eventually connecting with it. 

We had resisted the temptation of making the trip for nearly five months with many contributing factors stopping us, but today we cracked and made the trip. 

We left at 2am and despite a detour off the M6, we arrived around 6am. We climbed the bridleway, walked through the metal gate, and headed around the edge of the field to the viewing area. We were the only birders present at this time. I had just set the scope up when we heard the distinctive call of the Belted Kingfisher. A quick scan and Brian found it perched in a tree bordering the river. We enjoyed fantastic views of the bird as it began fishing and returning to riverside branches. We also heard it calling several times. 

We left and headed back to the car, but before leaving we scanned the river from Roach Bridge and found pairs of Dipper and Grey Wagtail.

River Darwen from Roach Bridge

We drove the eighteen miles towards Banks Marsh, hoping to connect with a Snow Goose, not really having or knowing the exact location we needed. We took a chance and parked at Old Hollow Farm and walked up the bank to view the marshes. Within seconds I had spotted the Snow Goose. We were thinking we might get a very distant view of a white dot among the many thousands of Pink-footed Geese but we were viewing the bird at relatively close range. We also enjoyed views of a Todd's Canada Goose after meeting and getting directions from the original finder of both birds further along the grass bank.

Snow Goose

At the metal gates before the car park, we watched Tree Sparrows collecting nesting material and heading for nearby nest boxes. Brian walked the grass bank eastwards looking for Twite and spotted a Merlin perched on a post. As we joined him to view the Merlin the twite flock was found and they took flight when the Merlin came hurtling through them. The flock headed back towards the entrance gates and we followed them.

Twite