Kingfisher spotting

[Phil Ambrose]

My wife is obsessed with looking for kingfishers as we cruise along. In the last 30+ years we've been on 15 hire boats, have had a share in a boat for the last 4 years, and now have our own and plan to cruise around every summer. In all that time we have only once seen a kingfisher, and that was on the Mon & Brec canal.

 

So my question is how often do you others spot them and where are they most common? Also are they more common on rivers where the water is clearer (usually)? We've mainly been on canals so perhaps that is the reason.She's become obsessed and although at least it keeps her occupied it's driving me mad! Are they as ilusive as we've found them to be?

You want to see Kingfishers?, get yourself down to my boat because we have one that sits on our tiller fishing and crapping on the stern deck. Mind you the Kingfishers here are very generous and dont mind whose tiller they sit on. Having said all that, I would not have it any other way, love to see them.

 

Phil

[Jerra]

Oh yes! That is the one

 

Such an amazing photo but - do forumites think this is the same bird as the one in my pic? I wonder if he wears a name tag somewhere

They are both female so it is a possibility. However the second picture seems to be a younger bird so if the photos were taken within a couple of months of each other I would say no they aren't the same bird.

[Woodstock]

Saw one on the Coventry last week just before Alvecote marina- albeit a mere flash of blue

[Mrs Trackman]

Cheshire Rose, that photo is amazing.

.I just love seeing kingfishers, they are like no other bird, that flash of electric blue, that dart like flight when alarmed. I agree with many of the comments about getting your eye in.Normally we follow a kingfisher along for quite a distance and cut the engine as we approach the bushes where we think the bird has landed. Eventually as the kingfisher reaches the end of it's territory it will fly back behind the bushes, sometimes there is a loud squeak as the next territory is reached and another kingfisher flies out.

In November 2010, just before the big freeze, we saw 13 or so in one day on the top pound of the Leicester section of the Grand Union between Watford and Foxton locks. We have found that it is easiest to see them when there are less leaves and in the autumn there are presumably more about as new kingfishers have been born and not suffered the winter cold. We did wonder what happened to those kingfishers during the 8 week freeze and we have seen far far fewer since that winter.

My favourite viewing of a kingfisher was on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, we followed one for what seemed like a mile right towards Salford junction, we were watching the kingfisher while poor motorists were thundering along the M6 above the canal. I know which way I prefer to travel to Birmingham.

[LEO]

Kingfishers are very common on the Tring summit level. A couple of weeks ago, I saw 3 at the same time - some kind of territorial dispute, as they seemed quite agitated?

 

Chris G

Hi Chris,

They have been nesting at the same spot on the summit for years possibly for 90 + years), best time to see them is just as the young leave the nest - I saw 6 within 1/4 of a mile a few years ago.Sometimes seen them around the moored boats on the offside.

 

Hope you are well.

 

Mike.

 

M

[little duck!]

hello, I'm still waiting to see my 1st kingfisher of the year. Other half saw one on the T&M the other day but i missed it. Last year i lost count of how many i saw mainly along the length of the Shroppie union, (we did all of it so saw them in various locations) and also a saw a few on the Caldon Canal. I usually spot the bright blue flash as they fly and then watch where they land and try to keep my eye on them, works for a while.

[luctor et emergo]

Used to see plenty along the bradford on avon to avoncliff stretch, and also further along, past dundas aquaduct.

Not many sightings recently, wether this is connected to the 'scorched earth' approach of the volunteer's bank side vegetation cleaning I will leave to more knowledgable observers..

[comfortably numb]

Following my post that began this thread we've taken on board all of the great advice, and yesterday while out on the Coventry Canal for the day my wife saw one flying accross the canal between Polesworth and Atherstone. She was unable to see where it landed so it was only a brief sighting but considering in all those years she had only ever seen one kingfisher then it is significant progress and it made her day! I love this forum!!

[Jerra]

Well done her! Now she is starting to "get her eye in" she will beginning to wonder how she missed them before.

[cheshire~rose]

Well done Mrs Numb.

 

What Jerra says is right. It is about starting to recognise a type of bird by it's "jiz" the way it flies, where it perches, how it feeds and the call. Amost every woodpecker I have ever seen has been when I have seen a dark bird flying between two areas of trees, often across a canal, road or even a motorway. Most people would ignore it thinking it was a starling, blackbird or similar but there is something specific about the undulating flight pattern of a woodpecker that makes my eyes follow the bird and I am often rewarded with a glimpse of the striking red of the head as it alights on a tree trunk confirming my initial identification.

 

It is the same with kingfishers.

[sassan]

Think I spotted one on the Kennet and Avon a couple of days ago. Not sure though, it was flying by quick at the time.

 

Might be easier for you to just paint a heron, then tell her the one she saw before was a baby and this is a full-grown one.

[STIG]

Kingfishers have a territory so often you will spot one in the same area if that is an area you tend to cruise regularly. They can be hard to spot. Often just a drap little bird flying low along the water ahead of the boat. If the light is right then you glmpse a flash of blue. The kingfisher will land on a brnach some way ahead of the boat. The trick is to keep your eye on the area you last saw it as when you get closer it will often fly off ahead of you again.

 

There is an area around Brewood on the Shropshire Union where we rarely fail to spot a kingfisher. Last weekend I decided I wanted to try and catch a photo of the blue streak as it flashed ahead of us so I got my camera set up for the poor light of the cutting and the zoom lens on with a fast shutter speed and positioned myself on the bow deck and waited. My eye was caught by the historic boat Battersea coming the other way so I was just about to line up a photo of it's bow coming towards us when I heard Dave shout from the stern - he had spotted a kingfisher. I locked my camera onto it and started clicking thinking even if I only got a blurred image I would be happy .... any moment now he would be flying off so with continuous shooting mode my camera was firing off shots in the hope that as we drew closer one of them might be worth looking at.

 

This little chap turned out to be a right poseur and he decided not to fly off and I got this photo:

 

 

Kiwimum and I exchanged notes afterwards and we realised the cracking shot she got of a kingfisher earlier this year was on the same stretch of canal and I have had one sit still as we pass before along there so maybe on that stretch there is one who is not quite so shy

Having just completed the four counties ring we passed through Brewood on Sunday and spotted this fella , could this be the same bird as he just sat there in the tree, I couldn`t believe it !!!!

Edited June 5, 2013 by STIG

[Jerra]

Having just completed the four counties ring we passed through Brewood on Sunday and spotted this fella , could this be the same bird as he just sat there in the tree, I couldn`t believe it !!!!

Cracking photo - congratulations! Oh by the way that he is a she.

[eightpot]

Thought I'd drag this thread up kicking and screaming from the depths of the board. Spotted from my kitchen window at the boat next door this evening as I came back to my mooring from a little jaunt to Brentford:

 

 

 

I know it's a West London local as its cal went: "chi-keeeee...chi-keeeee...chi-keeeee. innit."

 

 

 

 

That's Hayes for you. Craps everywhere and doesn't care.

 

Edited December 8, 2013 by eightpot

[ditchcrawler]

Spotted one at Welford junction a few weeks ago. Was early morning and the streak of blue and piercing call was confirmation. They sometimes are spotted in the most unlikely of locations, the outskirts of Nuneaton being one such!

Quite a few on the Leicester Line and lots below Watford locks

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Hi ya,I have seen a kingfisher 3 or 4 times where I moor @ Littlehampton Marina,on the south coast.

If you look at my photos I got quick snap of one sitting on my mooring warp,whilst I was sat in my cratch,not 6ft away !.

Have a look,see if you can find it in the galleries somewhere. I can't wait unroll I see it fly past with a Cod or Sea Bass !..

Edited December 9, 2013 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[nicknorman]

Thought I'd drag this thread up kicking and screaming from the depths of the board. Spotted from my kitchen window at the boat next door this evening as I came back to my mooring from a little jaunt to Brentford:

 

I know it's a West London local as its cal went: "chi-keeeee...chi-keeeee...chi-keeeee. innit."

 

That's Hayes for you. Craps everywhere and doesn't care.

 

 

Cracking photos, thanks!

Edited December 8, 2013 by nicknorman

[starman]

We saw one yesterday too flashing along the canal north of Bulls Bridge.

I wanted to kidnap the poor little bugger and take it away from all the grime and noise into some glorious countryside.

[Dave_P]

I posted a couple of months ago about a kingfisher I spotted on the Icknield Port Loop in Birmingham. Since then, I've seen it twice more in the exact same spot. It must really like it there.

[comfortably numb]

Great photos Eightpot. Since I began this thread way back in May we have seen quite a few kingfishers so we were obviously not looking properly as some suggested.

 

We saw lots when on the River Avon in September, and since moving to Kings Bromley we have a couple in the marina and one we regularly see along the canal between here and Fradley junction.

[Midnight]

Spotted one flying around Battyeford bridge on the Calder & Hebble twice in the last fortnight. Used to see them regularly on the Ouse, Ure and Ripon Canal.

[madcat]

They quite like selected bits of the BCN, there's a lot of stealth wildlife about.

I saw one early one morning on the Shroppie, it sat on the stop gate for the embankment and watched me sail past. I never been that close to one before or since, a magic moment that makes me happy every time I think of it.

Boating is great.

[nicknorman]

I posted a couple of months ago about a kingfisher I spotted on the Icknield Port Loop in Birmingham. Since then, I've seen it twice more in the exact same spot. It must really like it there.

They are very territorial, it must live there - and why not, few people around, not much housing (cats) and not even a towpath to allow fishermen to steal their food!

[Modge]

Not been boating for a while (time, money & crew constraints), but we saw loads of kingfishers on the Leeds & Liverpool either side of Skipton. The water on that canal is so clear you can easily see the bottom, so presumably makes it easier for the kingfishers to see the fish.

[Kwacker]

This summer, for the first time in 3 years I got a good look at a Kingfisher. It just sat on an overhanging branch and watched me drift past (I stuck the boat in neutral before I reached it's perch).

The photo I took on my phone has about 3 pixels of orange and 2 of blue in the centre .

ps. this was in the southern cutting of Husbands Bosworth tunnel.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Kwacker