UPDATE – 1st June 2007
On behalf of Mr & Mrs Kingfisher I’m delighted to announce the birth (hatching) of their babies – number as yet unknown! 
Having been observing these birds for nearly 3 months now with more than 40 site visits and having seen them have to abandon (for whatever reason?) their 1st choice nest site, I’m absolutely thrilled to report that hatching took place right on cue overnight on the 30th/31st May.
As mentioned in my update of 19th May and based on my observations of the birds’ behaviour during the final stages of the egg laying phase, I’d calculated that hatching would occur between the 30th May and 2nd June. With this in mind I decided to start to visit the site on a daily basis starting on the 29th May when I made an early evening visit of 1 hour and 10 minutes but without seeing or hearing either bird during that time
This worried me slightly and I was back on site at 4.20am the next morning (at first light) as in my experience the birds are always much more active in the early morning than in the evening. Sure enough (and much to my relief), I had close-range sightings of both birds during the next 1 ½ hours before returning home to get ready for work. However, their behaviour indicated that at that stage incubation was still in progress.
I was on site at 4.20am again yesterday (the 31st May) and, unusually, found the male already sitting on the perch I’d placed within a few feet of the nest hole. Unfortunately I disturbed him whilst getting my dome hide into position – I think this is the 1st time I’ve actually disturbed either bird on any of my 40+ visits – but he was back on the perch within 10 minutes and after several minutes spent preening made a quick visit to the nest hole before flying off.
Ten minutes later he was back again but this time carried a tiny fish of no more than about
3 cms in his bill. This fish was much smaller than any I’ve seen either bird with before and, knowing that the parents feed their new hatchlings with such small fish (and then steadily increase the size of fish as the chicks grow), I realised that this probably meant that hatching had begun – and, I confess, was duly excited by the prospect!
By the time I left the site at just after 8am the adult birds had delivered at least 9 very small fish to the nest hole, with one or other of them staying in the nest after each delivery and with the male doing most of the fishing. Each time either bird left the nest they made one or two of the shallow cleansing dips into the water as I’ve described previously, but I’ve now managed to get a shot of this behaviour and it follows amongst the photos at the end of this update.
I visited the site again for just under 1 hour yesterday evening and during that time saw the male bring in 3 small fish.
I was there yet again for nearly 4 hours from first light this morning and observed exactly the same behaviour with the parent birds delivering at least 8 fish to the nest by the time I left.
So, after nearly 3 weeks of relatively little activity around the nest site during the period of incubation, suddenly it’s all systems go as the parent birds begin the task of rearing their young and catching and delivering upwards of 2,000 small fish over a period of 23 – 27 days whilst the young birds remain in the nest.
I’m looking forward to some great photo opportunities during that period but also to seeing the young emerge from the nest around the 22nd to 26th June – I’m probably going to have to live in my hide for that few days!
In the meantime, I’ll keep you all posted with regular updates and here’s a few of my latest photos – of variable quality but I hope you like them.
Jeff
Mum looking rather bedraggled on first leaving the nesthole on the morning after the hatching of her babies!
Dad with what I believe is the first fish to be fed to his newly hatched babies -
Mum takes her turn with the feeding of the family -
Approaching the nest -
Dad flies in with 'fish of the day' no. 8 - probably my best flight shot to date
Dad takes a 'cleansing' dip on leaving the nest -
The proud parents together (playing 'bookends'?) - Mum on left and Dad on right -
and finally, the side view from my hide as the sun came up this morning - did I not want to go to work
but on a large boat full of people you'll probably get no more than a fleeting glimpse of irridescent blue as a bird flies away.
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