top of page
Search

Farewell my fine feathered friends.

Writer's picture: stevehomewood.comstevehomewood.com

I'm very sad to say that this female and her mate have deserted their nest site under the Winterbourne footpath bridge behind the Linklater pavilion in Railway Land nature reserve, Lewes because of an accidental disturbance and are almost certainly both dead by now. Here's why; and there is a happy ending to this tale.

Have a close look at the photo I took in the first week of March 2023. You can identify a female Kingfisher by the faint orange glow on her lower bill just where it emerges from her plumage. Also note the mud on her beak, she has been digging or at least clearing out the nest chamber, telling me that she was about to lay her first clutch of eggs of the year. Kingfishers only usually live to be about three years old and have many difficulties along the way.

The problem in 2023 was that the long awaited restoration of the Winterbourne stream began just two weeks into the first egg laying slot and the restoration team parked up all the machinery and stock on what was named Kingfisher corner after I had successfully crept there with several groups during the 2022 Love or Ouse festival and managed without disturbance to show everyone the kingfishers without disturbing them.



They abandoned their nest that year 2023 and did not return and nor did they this year 2024 either and by now they will simply have died of old age poor things.

Kingfishers are afforded extra protection above and beyond the norm, they are on the schedule 1 list of the Wild life and Countryside act 1981 with unlimited fines and up to 6 months in prison for disturbing them during their breeding season at least. I would have thought the workmen might have had, as is required by law, a nesting bird survey done by BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) officials but maybe by bad luck the pair were along the river fishing at the time?

I'm not going to follow this up and have to say that a fantastic job was done on the Winterbourne stream and actually I was myself unaware of these laws at that time.

Other problems that these birds have;

They are so brightly coloured that they are an easy target for birds of prey such as Sparrow hawks and they must hatch a brood of chicks three times a year to keep the species from extinction. The first in March and it takes approximately a month to incubate the eggs, another month for the chicks to be ready to leave and then the parents literally chase them away and start another family until and perhaps as late as October when they are exhausted. They and each of their usual 4 chicks per brood, need to eat their own body weight every day!

Good nest sites are very scarce here in and around Lewes. These birds are shy and need somewhere secretive with cover. The river bank has to be higher than the highest high tide level so that the metre long burrow that they dig for the nest chamber isn't prone to flooding and it has to be on a vertical or overhanging bank to make it difficult for predators such as Rats and Mink to get to the eggs and/or chicks.




Food has to be not too far away so as to avoid crossing into another Kingfishers territory as fights often end in injury or fatality And here comes the happy ending...

two years ago I was asked by the Phoenix group in north Street, now known as 'Human Nature', to take out two walks and talks re' the new Eco housing project. One to show the staff and one to show the public what lives there what problem we all might encounter and what can be done or at least planned to be done, one of which was artificial nesting boxes built appropriately into the proposed new flood defence river embankment. Fingers crossed for that and to the return of the next generation of local Kingfishers in the Winterbourne stream and finally I can finish my film to help protect them better in the future. Bye for now, Steve


42 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


Oct' 2021

 I was invited by the Sussex group 'Greenhavens'  to have a stall at the their annual event in the Port of Newhaven to advertise my

guided natural history walks & talks and

to display some of the extraordinary

'Inside the wave view' photographs

that I took of the local Mackerel & Whitebait

migration/feeding frenzy... 

This one of a Mackerel (right) surfing the wave full of

Whitebait is my favourite. 

Christmas Eve 2021

 Volunteering  again for the Ouse and Adur Seatrout spawning watch team I was able to film a pair of these elusive fish spawning on the first day they were noted on my stretch, just before 'rain stopped play' and the river was in a spate again, thick with dirt runoff and the last chance of the year.

"Merry Christmas all"

 

 

                                                       CV 

( Natural History)

                                                        ---

1985 - My first Photo exhibition was in Shoreham by Sea.

 I was  highlighting the flora & fauna of a man made 'corridor'

The old railway line from Shoreham to Beeding cement works

   made a unique connection from the

South Downs chalkland habitat to the tidal estuary

adjacent to a SSSI shingle beach and brackish lagoon.

Consequently, I was invited by Adur District Council to form the

Adur District Conservation Society

and was voted chairman and task officer.

1987 - Having moved to the Cumbrian Lake District

I completed a course in Nature Conservation and Management

run by Newcastle University in Keswick.

-

After a second photo exhibition in Carlisle Museum on the colour variations of individual Adders on the Solway Peat Bogs,

I took a 'further education' course also via Newcastle university,

on Peat bog formation and Biodiversity

-

In the 1990's I hand reared and released Barn Owls into the wild.

The chicks were excess to requirements at the

Muncaster Castle Birds of Prey Centre.

I sourced, and was granted for the purpose,

a rough meadow habitat with

a healthy population of Short tailed voles

and an empty old barn and suitable owl nesting box

 by Lord Rochdale on his Lingholm  estate at Portinscale,

 on the western shore of Derwentwater, near Keswick.

-

2012 - I was invited by the South Devon Natural History Society to give a slideshow talk (my first of many),

on my lifetime's experiences nature watching.

I was introduced by wildlife artist and author, Michael Loates,

who subsequently became a good friend.

 'Mickie' kindly illustrated my book 'Source to Sea'

with his spectacular paintings

2013 - I was invited to take part in an Environment Agency

netting and recording species survey in the R. Adur

 back at Shoreham- by sea.

2014 - I became a volunteer Sea Trout spawning recorder for

The Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust in Sussex 

which increased my fascination for photographing life

underwater rather than fishing.

2015/6 - I set about studying the mysterious annual spectacle of

Thin Lipped Grey Mullet at Lewes in the R. Ouse,

filming them underwater with a camera on a boom.

This lead to an appearance on BBC SPRINGWATCH

that I nicknamed  'A Murmuration of Mullet'

It was an unrecorded phenomena and lead to a series of

slideshow talks in the adjacent Railway Land Nature Reserve,

  for which I was awarded a honorary lifetime membership.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wwztx?msclkid=8f8a7001affe11ecadcc60150fa0a72a

2017 -  I was asked by BBC RADIO SUSSEX to teach

roving reporter Simon Jenkins how to

catch a Mackerel, live on air.  I succeeded and was then asked to chat on air about my book 'Source to Sea' which was serialised over a week from the BBC in Brighton. I am regularly asked to join live chats on BBC stations all over the UK 

2018 - I was invited to stage a photo exhibition in Lewes

to highlight the natural History and views along the newly opened Egrets Way cycle and footpath along the River Ouse from 

Lewes to Newhaven

in the South Downs National Park

 

2019 - Walks & Talks were requested by many individuals,

groups and organisation on a variety of subjects;

 

 

2020 - Covid restriction came into force but as they relaxed I was one of the first to arrange Covid safe Walks & Talks

and was employed by Newhaven, Seaford and Lewes Councils and the Group; 'Love Our Ouse'

during  festivals to take groups

out on Tidemills beach on the subject of 'The Living Shoreline'

2021 - Commissioned by PhD student Esmeralda Pereira

at the Marine and Environmental Research Centre in Portugal

 to obtain genetic samples, via catch and release,

of British catadromous Thin-lipped Mullet Chelon ramada 

for studies of the migratory dynamic.

-

I was very pleased to have been accepted as a member of

The Tide Mills Project, between Newhaven and Seaford.               From the shoreline to the railway line, the Mill and accompanying buildings were abandoned and destroyed ahead of the expected invasion of German forces in WWII

I have been asked to be a natural history guide alongside the historians during the celebrations in September.

Funded by the Lottery Heritage and the Southdowns National Park

-

 Newhaven Town council invited me to do a series of 

'Reconnect to Nature' Walk & Talks

for the public during the whole of September and October 

as part of their Newhaven Festival

and

Brighton Council have also invited me to do similar

'The Living Shoreline'

as part of their October 2021

'Homeward Bound'  Festival

-----

 I was invited as after business speaker

at Railway Land Wildlife Trust Lewes

Sea Trout spawning in Sussex
The Living Shoreline - Newhaven
Southdowns National Park
Walks and Talks Subjects
Michael Strachan
Railway Lan Wildlife Trust Lewess
Mackerel and Whitebait in Sussex

2022

Film maker Jack Perks & Cameraman Ross Birnie asked for my help in making a piece for their project;  'Britains Hidden Fishes'

Twitter -  @RiverFishUk  @JackPerksPhoto 

IMG_9029 (1).jpg

March 2022

I was invited to take 4 walks & talks via 'Visit Lewes' commissioned by Lewes District Council

IMG_8739.PNG
IMG_8832.jpg

April 2022

I was invited by the Sussex group

'Fire and Wild'

to take regular Walks & Talks proceeding their fabulous 

woodland feasts of game,

foraged fruit, vegetables and herbs.

IMG_9346.jpg

    - - -

August 2022

 

Perhaps my most unusual walk & talk was actually a request to Paddle & Talk for a kayak club who nature watched from the water in the Cuckmere valley in the Southdowns National park

IMG_1080.jpg

Sept 2022

I was invited to take out 3 back to back

illustrated Walks & Talks

for the 'Love our Ouse'

Festival.

As ever, I design my own posters

and photo packs for participants

Dec' 2022 

 

I was asked to take a Walk & Talk for the public and to advise the developers on ecological impact, around and adjacent to the new Eco housing development at Lewes in the Southdowns National Park.

The Pheonix Human Nature project is something unique to this area and I'm extremely grateful to be able to contribute my local knowledge.

IMG_2219.jpg

Feb' 2023

I was asked, by the editor of 'The Lewesian' magazine Sally Edwards,

to be their resident monthly Nature notes writer. 1st article Mar' issue

     I have always wanted to do that.

   Thank you Sally

IMG_3605.jpg

July 2023

I have been given an additional monthly Foraging page in the Lewesian magazine.

---

After giving a talk on

Wildlife Gardening

at the

Royal Horticultural Society partner 

'Bates Green Garden'

Sussex

I have secured bookingd for

 Spring, Summer and Autumn

Walks & Talks

2024

IMG_6612.jpg

2024

I attended a course in Lewes run by Love our Ouse www.loveourouse.org

To become a volunteer

Citizen scientist/River guardian

 recording and reporting

on all elements of

condition and pollution of

 waterways in the River Ouse

system in Sussex

bottom of page