A kingfisher flying after diving for food

I had a tip from our local birding website, The Gloster Birder, that a kingfisher had been spotted feeding in good view along the canal west of Stroud. Having checked the weather yesterday and found it would be sunny in the morning, I thought I would go prospecting. So I offered to drive helena to work by 8-30am and then carried on to the canal. 

Surprisingly it is difficult to park close to the canal near Stonehouse, so I ended up at an off the beaten track road with a short walk to The Ocean, the site of a former turning pond for canal boats. When the original Stroudwater canal was abandoned after the Second world war, the cut westwards from The Ocean was filled in when the main railway line from the west of England to Birmingham and the north of England needed a replacement bridge over the canal. A small tunnel allowed what little water still flowed along the canal and a small tunnel for the towpath allowed pedestrians to move back and forth.

!n 2022 the remnants of the old bridge were removed and a wholly modern replacement was constructed to allow the canal to be reopened once again. That will happen when the rest of the regeneration project is completed, hopefully within a couple of years. I walked under the new Ocean bridge and on my walk I saw many trains passing over it at quite a high speed. 

Kingfishers had surprisingly been seen visiting the building works and the former pond site, which still had a little still water in place.  Fish somehow survived in what was now more like a puddle than a lake. I remember when I'd visited during those building works that I got into conversation with a man and his granddaughter who were visiting the area. He had bought her a small but quite good bridge camera and this was her first day out using it. When she stood on the small swing bridge over the old farm track near the railway bridge works, a kingfisher had landed just ten feet from her and she’d managed to get a good sharp shot which she proudly showed to me. I was so pleased for her.

I hoped I might get lucky too as I walked westwards along the towpath beside the cut. The canal has been dredged in advance of the canal regeneration's big engineering works and a refreshed towpath was established. However the lack of cruising boats has meant the water hasn’t been kept very clear. Reeds and wild plants are establishing themselves but it will be properly cleared and managed when the time comes to reopen the canal.

I stopped a couple of times and chatted to walkers with children, dogs and on their own. One said she had seen a kingfisher earlier. About fifty yards further on I spotted a kingfisher, unusually high in a tree on the far bank. I saw it fly down and dive into the canal and return with some food in its mouth. I moved closer but disturbed it so that it flew about thirty yards further west.

I was  delighted to find that the setting was perfect, as the bird was in a tree or lower shrubs and reeds as it flew up and down a few times. but more importantly it was facing south into the sunlight and the tree cover behind me was quite low so that there was often bright light or at least dappled shade.

I watched it for about twenty minutes and took a few pictures, none perfectly of course, so I will return with pleasure. I love watching them anyway. I’ve posted a blip and a couple fo ‘Extras’ to show to some friends. I hope you like them too despite the rather uneven exposures