Shropshire Magazine

A common kingfisher at Venus Pool, caught in flight by George Ewart, who also took this month’s cover picture.

Mark Sisson follows a flash of blue on the county’s waterways and finds an adaptable and extremely beautiful bird

“It was the rainbow gave thee birth, and left thee all her lovely hues”, begins the opening stanza of WH Davies’s poem dedicated to the kingfisher. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to see more than just a whizzing flash of blue as one of these stunning birds darts across a nearby stretch of water will indeed testify to the amazing array of colours that make up their plumage.

Although the poem refers to the common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) that is resident here in the UK, this is just one of nearly 100 different varieties of the bird to be found across the world. A glimpse at some of the species’ names confirms that colourful is indeed the global adjective when it comes to describing them, with cinnamon-banded kingfisher and ultramarine kingfisher among my own more exotic favourites.

The bird is one that remains on the amber list of species, reflecting its status as thinly if widely distributed across England and Wales, yet remaining under a degree of threat from a habitat perspective – just one of many impacts that man has had on the bird over the centuries.

These have ranged from fashionable interests in their plumage as a decorative element in ladies’ hats; general persecution as a threat to fishing interests; and an early obsession with taxidermists who found much demand for glass-domed samples of their work based around this colourful subject.

There are many exotic relatives to our common kingfisher worldwide, including the American pygmy kingfisher.

More recently the development of flooded sand- and gravel pits, along with an increased environmental focus around the management of the country’s canals and rivers, has provided some much needed support. As a result the species was a key focus in the recently published 2007 National Waterway Survey sponsored by British Waterways.

The organisation’s national ecology manager, Mark Robinson, explains just why it is keen to keep tabs on the species. “It’s a bit like the big cats on the African plains really,” he cryptically begins.

“They are at the top of their respective food chains and as such are an important indicator as to the general health of their respective ecosystems. We were therefore particularly keen to monitor both numbers and locations of the sitings that members of the public reported as part of this, our fourth national survey.”

This focus no doubt influenced the presence of the bird as the fourth most reported species in the 4,000-odd total reported, but its presence in urban contexts such as Leeds and Coventry are certainly encouraging, and further evidence of the important role that canals play in providing green corridors – they are not simply potential sources of food and shelter, but the routes that species use to move from one habitat to another.

“Given this encouraging survey as far as the bird is concerned,” Mark adds, “a number of kingfisher habitat improvement projects are planned, including the installation of kingfisher boxes, posts and tunnels to help support populations in a number of locations including the Regent’s Canal in central London and the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal.

Hotspots

The canal system is prevalent in Shropshire, and so it comes as no surprise to find the stretch between Blake Mere and Colemere highlighted in the survey as one of the kingfisher hotspots, alongside other more exotic sitings including grass snakes and mink. The wet summer of 2007 provided a rare opportunity for almost guaranteed close-up views of the bird at the Shropshire Ornithological Society’s Venus Pool Reserve near Shrewsbury – right in front of the main viewing hide!

Venus Pool, near Cross Houses, Shrewsbury, provides an opportunity to see many species including kingfishers.

High water in the nearby River Severn (another excellent kingfisher waterway; I’ve regularly seen birds in the heart of Shrewsbury itself passing along and feeding on it) had not only flooded nest holes, but submerged the regular perches from which the birds feed. As a result one adult in particular soon found an alternative well stocked source of food in the reserve; with some carefully placed perches in front of the hide it was a daily certainty to enjoy watching the ultimate fisher at work from the safety of the hide.

He’s still visiting now (although less frequently) but once the breeding season starts again, it’s a spot that’ll be back on my itinerary, so stunning is that flash of blue.

And on that flash of blue, I wonder if WH Davies realised just how near the scientific mark he was when he likened the bird to a rainbow. The vivid colours that make up the birds plumage are actually iridescent – or structural colour as it is more correctly referred to.

This is a result of interference between different wavelengths of light as they are reflected from different layers on the surface of a substance – in the same way that rainbow colours appear on the surface of a bubble. The pigment in kingfisher feathers is disappointingly dark brown, but the structural colour produces the combination of bright blues, greens and oranges that make the bird unique and so popular, an icon of our rivers, a must for bird watchers and photographers too.