THOUGH I've never experienced the delight of seeing a kingfisher in the wild (my nearest sighting was under a glass case in the local museum) I'm reliably informed that this magnificent bankside bird is making a modest comeback locally.

Noted for a flash of electric-blue plumage as it dives at lightning speed to secure its little fishy prey, a total of three of these birds has been reported from St Helens in a new survey.

As part of the Mersey Basin Campaign, aimed at cleaning up our rivers, interested folk were invited to help in a head-count of kingfishers, dragonflies and damselflies - all of which are indicators of water purity.

The campaign, sponsored by Natwest, was launched in 1985 and will run until the year 2010. The aim was to do something about the Mersey Basin, then one of the most polluted and run-down river systems in Europe and which apparently extends as far as Pendle to the north, the High Peak to the east and as far south as Crewe and Nantwich.

The St Helens kingfisher sightings make far from spectacular reading in the latest update, being in the bottom bracket compared with Bolton, Stockport and Manchester which - to my surprise, at least - boast sightings of more than 60 apiece.

Could be, though, that folk from those parts are more observant or dedicated to the environment than your average Sintelliner?

The encouraging bottom line, though, is that overall Mersey Basin sightings, at 905, were up by more than 28 per cent on 1995 figures.

The other winged subjects are not flying quite so high, however. Dragonfly/damselfly sightings dipped by more than nine percent on the 1995 figure. There was a total of 3,626 sightings, but on a more upbeat note their actual distribution around the target region showed a vast improvement.

St Helens was again near the foot of the league with just 22 sightings. But I do know of at least three dragonfly spottings that went unrecorded.

These wing-whizzers homed in on my modest garden pond during last August - though (not then having been aware of the pollution-fighting survey) it never struck me as being particularly significant.

Now, though, I'm on dragonfly alert for any future spottings to submit to the survey.

ANYONE with questions or requiring information can contact Mersey Basin Trust at: Sunley Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester M1 4BG, tel. 0161 228 6924.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.