Saturday 12 June 2010

Young Kingfishers

There hasn't been much to see at Bretton lately so instead of going to the hide I decided to setup at the side of the lake. I've long suspected that Kingfishers use this area but previous visits have all proved fruitless.

After half an hour it looked like today was going to turn out the same, until this one turned up.
  

The white tip to the beak shows that it's a young bird apparently.

It wasn't long before another one appeared and they decided to sit together. A sibling perhaps?



Suddenly one of them dived under the water and emerged with what looked like a Stickleback. I remember these prickly fish from my younger days when we used to catch them in the local park lake. I wouldn't like to have to swallow one though!


Before swallowing the unlucky fish it flew back to where it had left its sibling. In the twenty or so seconds since it left the perch another two, presumably from the same nest, had arrived.



And there they sat for quite some time until finally dispersing to do a bit more fishing.



I never knew Kingfishers ate Tadpoles...



...or insects!


It was really good to see this young family who were all finding food without their parents, whom there was no sign of. Although I thought I counted five of them at one stage so mum or dad might have been around. They stuck around for about forty minutes, which was great to watch but I got a bit trigger-happy with the camera and ended up with over six-hundred shots! Still, its not everyday you get to see one of these birds, never mind four of them.

7 comments:

  1. What beautiful photos! I'd like to *see* a Kingfisher, never mine photograph one! :)

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  2. What a fabulous treat. Super series of images..FAB.

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  3. Thanks for the comments everyone.

    BG - interesting explanation regarding the white tips on the beaks.

    Hope you get close to the Belted Kingfishers soon. I find the best way is to sit still and wait and let them come to you. No camo needed - I was sat completely in the open for these!

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  4. They really do glow in the dark don't they? They look like a pair of runway lights to guide in the food! Great shots by the way.

    The banks of the top lake at Bretton, where all my Kingfisher shots are taken, are only accessible in front of the hide and the small inlet where those youngsters were fishing. In this area there are a few fallen trees which provide many natural perches.

    I installed my own perch in front of the hide. This was made from part of a fallen branch set into a bucket of concrete. (We don't have snakes to worry about though!) You can see this in an earlier post -

    http://bunglingbirder.blogspot.com/2010/01/kingfishers.html

    If you could manage to rig something up on the banks of your creek (or better still persuade some bloke to do it for you ;-) ) then I'm sure the Kingfishers would give it a try.

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  5. That's the first time I've seen anyone use paddling pools before!

    The guy has some interesting ideas doesn't he? If we had anything approaching the variety of birds that you get I might try it.

    Glad you like the other Kingfisher shots. Once you manage to get one of these birds to come close, the rest is very easy. They adopt many positions and usually hold the pose long enough to get shots at the lowest of shutter speeds. A very obliging bird - once you get in to land near!

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