All hail the King! - Catching Kingfishers

For those who aren't proper birders, Kingfishers aren't really a bird at all. They are that flash that streaks down the river side.  It is almost as though they have been concocted from the photons of dazzling orange and electric blue before being pulsated above the waters surface. There is no biological substance to them but the light and sound of their high pitched whistles. Perhaps they don't exist in the physical world at all. Maybe an embodiment of the spirit of the river, the very soul of an ecosystem both beautiful and delicate in one moment.

To see one in detail and have the chance to actually study these birds is something else entirely. To catch one of these sprites unawares and have the chance to watch it preen or fish is as though you have stumbled upon a sacred gem, buried deep within a river temple fit to bursting with biodiversity. It is then that you can appreciate the form of an animal crafted by evolution to deliver the final moments to the fish that swim beneath its feet. A jeweled assassin of the waterways.

To catch one is the ultimate prize. It's as if plucking a star out the sky suddenly became possible or by some powerful force you were able to hold lightning in your hand.

After 5 years of ringing I am lucky enough to say I was able to have such an experience as our group caught a pair at Creswell Crags this past Sunday. A day that will certainly never be forgotten.

The female that was caught first. Her red lower mandible tells you the sex of Kingfishers

The detailing on these birds is out of this world

That flash of blue

Male (foreground) and female side by side

One of the BEST ringing experiences I've ever had

Exploring Potteric Carr

Today I paid a visit to Potteric Carr, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve just on the outskirts of Doncaster, with a local bird group I am a member of. The site reserve itself is over 500 acres in size and has been growing over the course of the fast few decades as more and more land has been acquired. It has a long history of use and had been drained multiple times during its long history with humans whilst also being part of Hatfield Deer Chase at the time of Henry VIII.
Nowadays it is comprised of a many different habitats including wet woodland (also known as Carr Land, where the the reserve gets its name), open water and scrub. The main habitat type is reed bed however which comprises vast swathes of the area and surrounds almost all of the open water.

Like most reed bed reserves, Potteric Carr entices you in with charismatic species such as Bittern and Water Rail which you will almost definitely fail to see.

I spend far too long looking over scenes like this to never see a Bittern.

 The reserve starts in the very large and new visitor centre which looks more like you're walking into an office block for a 9-5 shift than it does to spend a day birding. Outside the visitor centre is a small feeding station which only needed a tumbleweed blowing across it to be more devoid of life. It wasn't the most scintillating start.

Once the group had gathered together and entry fees were paid, we set out on our way. The first hide we stopped at overlooking a small lake surrounded by reeds included the regulars such as Teal and Mallard etc but was also where we picked up my first new bird for 2015. Nothing outrageous (and we went on to get into double figures during the rest of the day) but a pair of nice Snipe decked out in their sublime camouflage were great to see in the scope.

The next hide held an even greater delight however. The first thing we noticed was a solitary Little Egret sat in a tree in the middle of the lagoon preening itself and generally looking stunning.

Always gorgeous

A member of our group then pointed out a bird down in the corner by the reeds that was probing around feeding which soon took all our attention. A Water Rail. Notoriously shy birds that live out their lives skulking about amongst the reeds, this one gave long, brilliant views to all the group and added another bird to my 2015 list.

Water Rail

Further round at a hide overlooking a feeding station (in front of a lake of course, all the hides here seem to come with mandatory lakes) we got nice views of Reed Bunting, a Jay that came into the bird table, a small vole that warily popped out for some seed when the Jay wasn't around as well as Chaffinch, Blue, Great and Coal Tits. Unfortunately the Willow Tit gave us the slip and must have coerced the Brambling into following suit as he wasn't around either.

A short stop followed at the excellent cafe for a top notch bacon sandwich (that almost went straight in at number 1 for the highlight of the day) and then three of us had a quick look in one of the hides nearby. We'd been told by somebody else that there was nothing to see in the hide but as it's always those hides that turn up the best species when you choose to ignore them, we decided to pop in. It wasn't long before we were rewarded too. Drifting in over the reeds came a female Marsh Harrier that came straight forwards, banked in front of the hide before heading off out of sight. A mesmerising thirty seconds or so.

Once the group had assembled post brunch we set out off to the larger lakes. This included a little stop off at a smaller patch of water where we picked up a nice Kingfisher (strangely getting mobbed by Black Headed Gulls - a behaviour which I had never seen or heard of before). Upon reaching the larger lakes, I resumed my identification battle with juvenile gulls underneath the swirling flocks of over 100 Lapwing. I was able to nail the Common Gulls pretty easily and after a bit of deliberation and confirmation from a more experienced birder, I was successful in ID'ing the juvenile Herring Gulls. Across the other side of the water stood 5 Little Egrets, living proof that these birds' colonisation of the UK continues successfully.

A Grey Heron (left) and 5 Little Egrets enjoying the early afternoon sun

All in all the trip was a very pleasant one and we finished on just over 40 birds for the day. Even the feeding station had picked up by the time we returned to the visitor centre as it creaked under the weight of 2 Blue Tits and a Great Tit. There hadn't been any sight of the Ring Necked Parakeet that had been seen on the outskirts of the reserve over the past few days and not even a hint of a Bittern (although I'm starting to think that it's to be my next bogey bird) but that didn't put a downer on the day. Great views of Water Rail and Kingfisher and 4 new birds for the year, as well as a nice walk and social meet up made for a really enjoyable Sunday.

An unexpected garden visitor

Blackcap are a species that are becoming increasingly more common as an overwintering bird in the UK. Their presence in the winter has been recorded for a few years now but it is only recently that we have learned that our wintering birds are not are summer individuals but in fact continental ones that come from Germany and such places to take advantage of our milder winters.

Recently they have started making use of feeders, particularly fat balls, and their presence is increasing in winter gardens. I only ever saw my first winter Blackcap last January when a male passed through the garden for all of 30 seconds.

Today I was treated to much better views though after I noticed what I thought was a strange coloured House Sparrow feeding on the fat ball feeder. It suddenly dawned on me that this might be a Blackcap and after racing upstairs and grabbing the binoculars I was able to confirm that it was a nice little female that had paid me a visit. She stayed around for quite a a few minutes and alternated between sitting in the Hawthorn with the Sparrows to going back to the fat balls until she was scared off by a passing cat.

These are the birds that Valentine's Day is made for.