Goosander and cormorant on the River Kent

Female goosander

The River Kent is a short, fast-flowing river which rises and falls fast.  Last night the rain lashed down and trees thrashed about in the wind. Mild enough, but relentless rain.  A gurgling dawn of louring cloud. This morning we will return to the river to see how things are.
The weir below Stramongate Bridge is dramatic, a cascade of amber water with a loud churning of rocks below the fall.  When the river is in spate the shoals of rock and gravels are submerged and the waterbirds seek the shelter of bankside reeds upstream, and of eddies.

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You can see where the current flows fast and the calmer water near the bank where birds can gather. Rain is the motif this autumn and I like to find how water birds fare. Some days the river is so fast and furious there's not a bird to be seen.  In summer I found two female goosanders with tiny ducklings. Then the rains set in and I could not find them. I saw a mallard scrambling her ducklings onto the safety of the river bank. And I watched two tiny ducklings borne away downstream,  and lost.  The current too strong for them. 
On 28 September someone saw a salmon trying to leap the weir. There is a fish pass but I haven't seen salmon this autumn.  There are often grey wagtail calling, darting across the river, perching on rocks amid-stream, when the rocks aren't submerged.  Dipper too.   On this day goosander and cormorant sought shelter on a shoal of gravels close to the eastern bank, below the weir.  A  solitary goosander fished in the turbulent water. 
Another rainy day, but with fitful sunlight that sparkled and gleamed off the river.  And the wild water sent long ribbons of bubbles downstream. 
I spent a while by the river. Long enough for it to fall visibly and reveal the bases of the three piers where Gooseholme Bridge stood until recently.   On such days locals come to look at their river, with tales of Storm Desmond and the havoc wrought on that December day. 

9 October.   The forecast was for more rain so I didn't bother to take a camera, and regretted it when the sun shone on a gravel shoal below Stramongate Weir where waterbirds gathered.  Black headed gulls, a goosander and a cormorant with white breast and belly.  Must be a juvenile.
​Grey wagtail and dipper showed too.

It's a treat to have goosander in town. In autumn, the birds you'll see are females or juveniles.  Handsome birds with plumage of subtle colouring and intricate pattern.   A crest of chestnut feathers, like a hood.  The goosander is a sawbill- her fine fishing bill is distinctive, like her red feet often visible as she swims.  Fishing, she flip-dives and disappears, is lost, and you seek the river to see where she surfaces.   Spotting prey, she's off is a flash.  Webbed feet running on the water and leaving behind her a churn of white water.  When the males appear they are the more striking of the pair. But look at her, she's a beauty.  Look at that mantle of soft grey plumage  that mirrors the ripples of the river, her each feather. 
Next day,  there was a gathering on the gravel shoal. Only black-headed gulls.  I walked upstream and saw a cormorant flying high over the river, downstream. So I back-tracked to Stramongate Weir.   An all-black cormorant sat amidst jackdaw and black headed gulls and a sole goosander.  I could make-out the hooked tip of his bill. Not the cormorant I'd seen before.