Down by the river again

After a bit of necessary shopping I drove to the west of town’ to The Ocean, an important site on the old Stroudwater canal, where a railway bridge built over the ‘abandoned’ waterway has just been replaced by Network Rail. It entailed the closure of the whole main strategic railway line from Birmingham to Bristol for six days and nights over the Christmas holiday. This old bridge was the physical barrier to the eventual re-opening of the canal to reconnect it to the national network. Now the regeneration can proceed apace, and hopefully Stroud will be linked up again within about two years. No-one thought this was possible ten years ago.

Apparently the temporary closure of the canal either side of the bridge, which was necessary for its re-construction, has changed the behaviour of a kingfisher so that it is now commonly to be seen at The Ocean, the nickname for the wide turning area for narrowboats close to Stonehouse. I'd spotted reports on the local bird reporting website that now it could often be seen there. I thought I’d have a look for myself. When I arrived I was quite surprised to see quite a number of bird watchers armed with enormous lenses as if they were visiting Slimbridge. I wasn’t surprised that the kingfisher was nowhere to be seen.

I returned to the car and headed on to Elmore, to stock up with 'Jess’s Ladies organic milk' and her keffir, which I have grown to love in the last year. I buy it from their shed close to some barns where there is an honesty box and a large fridge holding today’s ‘fresh from the cow’ milk. As usual I drove towards home via the River Severn, which flows downstream from Gloucester only about a mile from the farm. At Epney there is a pub on the river bank on the outer edge of a large meander in the river, where I’ve blipped many times before. The extensive bird life and the vagaries of the tidal river seen from the high flood prevention embankment always give me pleasure.

There was a low tide today in the middle of the afternoon, but with a clear blue sky once again and no wind it felt reasonably warm. I stood looking upstream mostly with the sunlight beginning to set from the south-west. Three Brent Geese were feeding on a sand bank on the low tide while hundreds of gulls were squabbling a bit further downstream while flying high into the air and diving back down onto the water.

Flocks of much smaller birds flew across fields and then over the river. A few mallard ducks pottered up and down the river which was running slowly. A cormorant flew down over the middle of the river from Longney and then turned in the air in front of me having apparently seen something to eat in the water. It landed and swam briefly before diving for many seconds and then re-appearing some way away with a fish in its mouth.

I turned my attention suddenly to the rocks exposed by the low tide at the bottom of the nearby embankment. I saw a flash of blue and couldn’t really believe it was a kingfisher. I’d never seen one on these very wide tidal stretches of the Severn. Sure enough a few minutes later I saw it again and then over the next half an hour I watched as it hunted, dived, emerged and sat eating its prey on nearby stones. What a treat. It had occurred to me earlier that when you want to see kingfishers they seem to be very elusive, and then appear ‘out of the blue’. I’d never before been able to watch a kingfisher diving into water repeatedly, so I felt elated, and still do. I thought I’d add a few ‘Extras’ from what I saw. I’m only annoyed with myself that I hadn’t bought my ‘lens extender’ with me which I’d contemplated but then rejected. I must put it in my camera bag at all times.