Aurora borealis: <b>Pure Belter! The kingfisher trip</b>

April 11, 2005

Pure Belter! The kingfisher trip

Aurora header.jpg

(NB - for those looking for the Little Auk / Gyr Falcon image - click here)

A happy ending to the Belted Kingfisher story! And one of the least glamorous but most involving twitches I've ever undertaken... I'd been offered a cheap place accompanying DC from Shetland to Coulter on the Wednesday night boat, but couldn't take him up on it as there were altogether too many urgent things that needed doing at home in the meantime. But P was wonderful, and packed me off on the Thursday night boat. The crossing was ghastly (a force 9, so a bit lumpy), but I took my Kwells and crashed out on the floor of the fore-lounge.

I woke up in Aberdeen, raring (!) to go, but remained stuck on the boat as the tide wasn't right to get foot passengers off; eventually they released us through the car-deck. I legged it straight to a bus stop in Union street, getting a text message from S (see last entry's photos) to the effect that the bird was still there. As my bus ground out of town there was snow on the ground, and I wished I'd packed warmer clothes - I hoped I'd not have to wait too long to find the bird.

Fortunately as I arrived on the riverbank the bird was perched some way upriver in a tree on the opposite bank. It remained there for about 30 minutes, making one brief sortie to the opposite side of the river. The viewing conditions weren't great, as the brief spell of sunshine that had greeted me in Coulter had given way to a chilling northerly and snow showers... I tried to get some photos, but everything was conspiring against me, so the following two are very much the best of a bad lot:

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Culter Belter2.jpg

They at least prove I was there... But not much else!! Anyway, crap photos aside, what a wonderful bird this was. It's one of those species I've dreamt of seeing in the UK ever since I first realised such things might occur here once in a blue moon, so the sense of satisfaction was immense. The bird eventually flew off downriver, gathering height as it went. I feared that was it, bird gone for good, but was proved wrong as it returned later on; however, as some folk learnt to their cost over the weekend, it was to depart that night. To Shetland?! Well, here's hoping. Personally I reckon it'll be somewhere else in Scotland - there's plenty of suitable riverine habitat for it to choose from.

I killed the rest of the day shopping in Aberdeen, caught the overnight boat back to Shetland, and eventually made it home at lunchtime on Saturday, over 48 hours since I left on the Thursday morning, but a once-in-a-lifetime Belted Kingfisher the richer.

Back from the high-octane world of kingfisher-twitching, the seasons continue to overlap here; Iceland Gull numbers have soared again in Lerwick after the recent northerlies - 8 today in the field at Gremista - but migrants continue to trickle in, with a handful of Goldcrests and a Dunnock at home on Saturday, and my first Bonxie of the year cruising the airspace over the Catch this afternoon.

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