{"id":15855,"date":"2022-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15855"},"modified":"2022-05-12T11:24:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T09:24:22","slug":"the-fisher-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/05\/05\/the-fisher-king\/","title":{"rendered":"The fisher king"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Found by still or slow-flowing lakes, canals and rivers, the arrestingly beautiful common kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, is only slightly larger than a robin but is nearly twice as heavy, weighing in at 34\u201346g <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

WILDLIFE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The fisher king<\/h2>\n\n

Electric-blue and elusive, kingfishers are always a thrilling sight on Britain\u2019s rivers, says Matt Gaw<\/strong>. But this live-fast, die-young hunter has little-seen nesting habits that belie its regal beauty<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Both the male and female work to excavate the nest burrow, digging a metre deep into the soft soil of riverbanks <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

I<\/span> am getting into the water, clenching my teeth and regulating my breathing, when I hear it coming. A half dog-toy, half cricket chirp; a fluttering peep-peeping. There is a pause and then I see it too. A kingfisher on the wing; a bird that doesn\u2019t so much as fly but unzip the air above the water. An electric-blue arrow that burns bright in the weak sun of a late winter afternoon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It is a special sight. It always is. While kingfishers are not scarce on Britain\u2019s waterways \u2013 there are an estimated 5,100 summer breeding pairs \u2013 seeing one still feels like a rare gift.After all, most sightings tend to be so quick, such a sonic boom of half-glimpsed colour, that it can take the brain a while to catch up. It is for this reason that I started <\/span>swimming this stretch of the Little Ouse river in Suffolk so regularly, to try and become part of this bird\u2019s world for slightly longer.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhile king fishers are not scarce on Britain\u2019s waterways, seeing one still feels like a rare gift\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

I lower myself down and launch into a frosty breaststroke. Although storm Eunice has passed and this shallow Suffolk valley is relatively sheltered, I can still feel the wind strong on my face and swirling in the water.Gusts kick the surface of the river into sharp ripples that spit into my face, while a few dropped sticks nudge into me as I look ahead for movement above the water or the distinctive silhouette of a perched kingfisher.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

To be honest, it is probably not the best day to come for a swim. But as soon as the winds died, I was itching to get to the river and see how the kingfisher I\u2019ve been watching from the water over the past two or three months had fared; to see if this fragile 40g bird had survived what fences, trees and trampolines had not.<\/p>\n\n

In some ways, given the kingfisher\u2019s multiple connections to the weather, it seemed appropriate, too. The Tudors, with characteristic gruesomeness, believed a dead kingfisher hung by its neck would slowly rotate towards bad weather. Known in Greek legend as the halcyon bird, the kingfisher even gave its name to the peaceful \u201chalcyon days\u201d \u2013a period of time at the start of December when the kingfisher was once thought to lay its eggs on a seaborne raft of sticks and bones.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Kingfishers are found across the UK apart from northern Scotland, but are notoriously difficult to spot, despite their dazzling colours Photos: Naturepl.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

In fact, it is around late February to early March when the breeding season kicks off for kingfishers and they begin to pair up. The males, territorial and aggressive at the best of times, can battle in mid-air in bill-locking, frantic and even fatal skirmishes for the right to pass on their DNA.<\/p>\n\n

For the successful male, it is now that the really hard work of nesting begins. The kingfisher does not nest, but instead burrows up to a metre into riverbanks. Occasionally, old burrows will be re-excavated, but often new tunnels will be dug \u2013 the male testing for a soft point with his bill, before perching and digging at the bank.The whole process to create a home fit for a king takes about a fortnight, with both birds taking on shifts at the coalface, before backing out the way they came, shuffling spilled earth into the river with their tiny feet.<\/span>The nest tunnel ends in an oval chamber, which is angled downwards to stop eggs rolling away into the river.<\/p>\n\n

For all the hard work to make the nest, the kingfisher is not exactly house-proud. If you often hear a kingfisher before you glimpse it, you will probably smell a kingfisher burrow before you spot the narrow bankside opening.<\/p>\n\n

Canoeing on the River Wye, I watched a male and a female fly into a burrow that dripped with a stinking green grot of faecal matter, coughed-up pellets and rotting fish. Even the kingfishers seemed to be mildly disgusted with the situation, with each parent washing as soon as they got out.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
To secure a plentiful food supply, kingfishers are solitary for most of the year and very territorial, fiercely defending an area of up to 3km of river <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cThe king fisher, it seems, is the rock star of the river, destined to live fast and die young\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

ANATOMY OF A KINGFISHER<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AVERAGE WEIGHT: <\/strong>31g (adult) AVERAGE LENGTH: <\/strong>17cm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

If conditions are right, kingfishers can have up to three clutches, often using different burrows to avoid the fetid stink of the previous inhabitants. They lay around six perfect, white, gobstopper-sized eggs, with the first laid in March and April and incubated by both parents. The young stay in the nest for another three weeks before fledging. The adults support them for another three or four days, before aggressively shooing them away and starting the whole process again.<\/p>\n\n

Many of the brood will die in these early weeks. According to Paul Stancliffe at the British Trust for Ornithology, this is largely due to inexperience; the birds haven\u2019t yet had time to grow into their name. But even those that survive are not long-lived. The oldest recorded ringed kingfisher was just four-and-a-half, with most only surviving for 12 months. The kingfisher, it seems, is the rock star of the river, destined to live fast and die young.<\/p>\n\n

Although murderous Tudors and Victorians hunting for iridescent feathers for hats and fishing flies no longer take a toll on kingfishers, the extreme weather and pollution is responsible for the biggest crashes in the kingfisher population. Cold spells can mean the freezing of water, preventing hunting, while rain brings higher waters, reducing visibility and giving fish a chance to shelter in the depths.<\/p>\n\n

The kingfisher that I have been watching does not seem fazed by today\u2019s conditions. In fact, he (the lack of red \u2018lipstick\u2019 on the lower mandible suggests male) is making use of a wind-toppled tree, the crown of which now lies in the river\u2019s flow. I stop about six metres away, planting my feet in the river bottom, enjoying the feel of the water against my skin, the needling cold already turning to that strange, almost burning warmth.<\/p>\n\n

CONJUROR OF THE LIGHT<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

Even from this distance, I can see the neon brightness of him. The sunset gold on his breast. The gas-flame blue of his head that is splashed in lighter blue drops, as if the bird is somehow wearing the river. There is certainly magic in it. While the orange of a kingfisher\u2019s chest and underwing is a product of tiny pigment granules, the cyan and blue are \u2018structural\u2019 colours created by the reflection of short-wavelength light striking air pockets within the feathers. For a bird who is barely there when we see it, its colours aren\u2019t there at all.<\/p>\n\n

He is hunting now. I can tell from his posture, the way he bobs his head slightly to gauge depth and focus. I stare at him, thinking how this bird\u2019s whole skull is designed to split water and grab minnows, sticklebacks and bullheads in that needle-nose bill. Any second. Any second.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
A clear, still pool offers the perfect spot for hunting fish Photos: Getty, Alamy, RSPB Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
As the kingfisher dives, a transparent eyelid closes to enable underwater vision<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

He waits.<\/p>\n\n

A leaf fizzes past underneath him.<\/p>\n\n

Then he turns his dagger to the flow. Looks with a quick, black eye. And dives.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019ve seen hundreds of photographs of kingfishers hunting. Some of them locked on to a target, others exploded from the water with prey. One beautiful shot showed the kingfisher at the very moment it was about to enter the water: its reflection charging up to meet it.<\/span>It looked as though there were two birds rather than one; their slightly opened bills joined in an impossible balancing act.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cHe shuffles and turns, strikes the fish twice on the perch then gollops it down whole\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

But there is none of that here. No freezeframe, no fuss. The kingfisher is up and down in a blue-blur blink. A hummingbird on caffeine. This time he has struck out. He shakes his head once and then dips again, blipping back into existence with a green slip of a fish held carefully in his bill. He shuffles and turns, looking for an angle, strikes the fish twice on the perch and then gollops it down whole. There is urgency in his eating.A mechanical efficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Dive, thwack, swallow. Dive, thwack, swallow.<\/p>\n\n

This is part of a kingfisher\u2019s daily mission to eat its bodyweight in fish. With hungry chicks, later in the season, the burden becomes greater still. Appetites quickly grow and if a brood of six survives, it\u2019s possible that adult kingfishers will have to source more than 100 fish, plus what they need to stay on the wing, in just one day. No wonder their exhausted parents are so quick to see them on their way.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Kingfishers prefer to eat minnows and sticklebacks, but will also snack on insects, tadpoles and freshwater shrimps<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

A FLEETING BEAUTY<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s because I\u2019m getting cold, but I\u2019m finding it hard to keep still. I move too suddenly and the kingfisher notices me. He lifts his tail, excretes pointedly and is gone. I think about following him, but I know he will be much further downstream. Maybe he has another prime hunting spot, or maybe, just maybe, he has a mate and the beginnings of a tunnel in a steep-sided bank.<\/p>\n\n

I get out and dry myself on the bridge that gives good views of the river in both directions.The sun has just set and the last rays create an orange blush against the clear, darkening blue.<\/span>It is, I think, a kingfisher sky: another beautiful trick of the light.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Matt Gaw <\/strong>is a journalist and author who has written for The <\/em>Guardian, <\/em>The <\/em>Times <\/em>and The <\/em>Telegraph. <\/em>His books include The <\/em>Pull <\/em>of <\/em>the <\/em>River: <\/em>A Journey into the Wild and Watery Heart of<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

WHERE TO SEE KINGFISHERS<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you don\u2019t have to get into the water for a good sighting of a kingfisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vantage point on bridges over rivers, streams and canals can give you a chance to see a kingfisher blazing over the water for slightly longer. Here are some of the best places in the UK to get up close and personal with the fisher king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Lackford Lakes, <\/strong>Suffolk (below) suffolkwildlifetrust.org\/lackfordlakes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 London Wetland Centre, <\/strong>Barnes wwt.org.uk\/wetland-centres\/london\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Great Fen, <\/strong>Cambridgeshire greatfen.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 RSPB Rye Meads, <\/strong>Hertfordshire rspb.org.uk\/reserves-and-events\/reserves-a-z\/rye-meads\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, <\/strong>Norfolk rspb.org.uk\/reserves-and-events\/reserves-a-z\/strumpshaw-fen\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

Watch! <\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Helen Skelton photographs kingfishers in a Welsh nature reserve in this Countryfile <\/em>episode bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p09wwd8f<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photos: Getty, Alamy, Naturepl.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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