A kingfisher at St Cyr's

I arranged to visit Anne M to return the projection screen I’d borrowed recently. Once I left the house I suddenly decided I then go on to The Ocean, the canal basin on the Stroudwater canal on the edge of Stonehouse. The weather was beautiful with clear blue sky and nearly warm sunshine, and I thought it might be the last good opportunity to seek out the kingfishers which are often on show there.

I parked at St Cyr's churchyard just a couple of hundred yards from the canal basin, which is next to the relatively newly replaced mainline railway bridge between Bristol and the north. I had a chat with a woman eating rose hips from a tall bush. Very brave I thought. I crossed the small swing bridge leading to a few houses close to the River Frome, a few hundred yards below winding through the valley’s spreading meadows.

The towpath at The Ocean is less than fifty yards long before it narrows and goes under the railway bridge. I walked slowly up and down this path, past a big canal barge being used by the regeneration team. I stood with my camera when I arrived and within a minute I spotted a kingfisher right at the back of the basin where trees and reeds meet the water. Seven swans were quietly pre-occupied on the basin, as was a little grebe. 

But I only had eyes for the kingfisher, for the next hour. In the ‘Extras’ I’m posting a small selection of what I saw then. I was delighted I’d chosen to come today. A perfect day for photographing a kingfisher and there was one cooperating perfectly, behaving in all the manners you’d want to see.

A series of Back Blips – 8