Kingfisher showoff delights Sunday visitors

Paul Steven’s weekly diary runs as the Wildlife Sightings column in the weekly Observer series of newspapers.

There was frost on the boardwalk when I arrived at Arundel Wetland Centre on Sunday morning. The cold overnight wasn’t enough to kill off the dragonflies and the bright sun in the late morning brought them out of hiding. Our Icelandic exhibit is covered with netting to protect the rare species of ducks inside. I clambered over the handrails to unplug a water pipe in the exhibit and disturbed a migrant hawker dragonfly. The netting is much too small for him to pass through it so he must have been washed into the exhibit in the nymph stage last winter during the high water levels on the grounds to emerge as an adult inside in September.

Kingfisher perching near the Ramsar hide.
Kingfisher perching near the Ramsar hide.

The benches inside the Ramsar hide were crowded with visitors on Sunday all hoping to see a kingfisher. They were not disappointed! In the 30 minutes I was there I had some of the best views of kingfishers I have seen this autumn. A male was perched just out of sight on the right hand side of the hide. He kept appearing and hovering over the water in mid air then diving straight down for a fish. He then perched up on a short tree stump on the spit opposite the Ramsar hide, his orange chest blending with the autumn colours. He even did some long loops over the water showing off with his catch in his mouth. Unfortunately the light was behind the bird, silhouetting the kingfisher in my shots and he was too fast for my lens many times! WWT member Ian Thompson took this lovely series of silhouettes of the kingfisher hovering in one spot in front of the hide.

While waiting for the kingfisher at the Ramsar hide a peacock butterfly flitted in and out the windows. The frost would have been a warning to find a crack or crevice to crawl into for the winter. A wasp queen was also buzzing the sunny windows of the hide. At least three pairs of red common darter dragonflies were mating in front of the hide as well a few pairs of migrant hawkers. The drop in temperatures had given them a sense of urgency.

Above the Lapwing hide I spot two red kites soaring above. We are seeing them quite regularly above the reserve now. A pair of tufted ducks swims near the jetty here - the male is almost fully coloured up into breeding plumage.

On Arun Riverlife, I spot the strange tufted duck/pochard duck hybrid that has been hanging around. It looks like a tufty but it has a chestnut head. Several fish are feeding at the water’s edge. Among the roach and rudd I spot a silvery mullet! I have heard there are some mullet species that do okay in freshwater but this is the first one I have seen on site.

Silhouetted kingfisher hovers in the air over the waters near the Ramsar hide  Photographs by Ian Thompson
Silhouetted kingfisher hovers in the air over the waters near the Ramsar hide Photographs by Ian Thompson

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