Kingfisher Diary (with photos)

[juliejam]

Some excellent photos ...well done you must be proud ..

thanx for sharing ..


Julie

[Seajay]

Originally Posted by JeffH

I'm pleased to report that the sequence of 3 fish pass shots I mentioned in last night's posting have now appeared in the Gallery, if anyone's interested.

Jeff

Extremely interested Jeff! Lovely to see the shots and hear how things are going on. I am sure many people are like me who only get a brief glimpse of a Kingfisher never having the joy of a resident family! Thank you for sharing it with us and please continue.

Colin

[smartie]

Great report and photos, Jeff. As last year, I find myself already caught up in a shared concern for "your" birds. We've more rain forecast for later this week, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the fate of the latest nest hole.

[pressld2]

Another excellent installment Jeff, with more superb images. It's great that you give us a mix of more formal portrait shots with behaviour shots too. I agree with you (and Ian) that the mating sequence is outstanding and it doesn't look at all noisy on my PC. The feeding, preening and nest building shots are all great too.

I have my fingers firmly crossed that the weather improves and the higher nest hole doesn't get flooded.

I saw a kingfisher myself yesterday - my second ever! - at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, but it was a couple of hundred yards away on the far side of one of the lakes. I sat for a couple of hours in a hide with some excellent perches right in front of it but no luck. So I am, as always, really grateful to you for providing me with my kingfisher fix!

Dave P.

[GME]

Amazing!! Such beautiful birds, really done proud by the quality of photos. Thanks ever so much for sharing and updating Jeff.

Gareth

[JeffH]

Thank you all for your very kind and encouraging words. It really is a pleasure to share my experiences and photos with such an appreciative and enthusiastic group of people

Ian and Dave P's comments about the mating sequence have reminded me of something I forgot to mention in the update.

Shortly before I got those shots there was an earlier (and quite amusing) attempt at mating. What happened was that the male was working in the nesthole with the female sat on a nearby branch with her back towards the nest.

Suddenly the male flew out and made for the same perch but instead of landing on the branch he landed straight on the female's back and attempted to mate. This obviously caught her by surprise and as a result both birds fell off the branch and into the water below - that seemed to cool the male down a bit and he then flew off.

Sadly it also caught me by surprise and I didn't manage to get any shots of it.

It did make me laugh though and was clearly not the most effective seduction technique - even for Kingfishers

Jeff

[aeshna5]

Lovely shots as usual. Pleased the Badgers have lost interest as I'm sure they would happily excavate the nest if accessible for the tasty contents!

Interesting to see the Kingfishers preening in the snow. Not something I've observed, but rarely see snow in the soft south these days- this weekend being the first this winter!

I think you have a book in the making here Jeff- a wildlife best seller. There are few birds that catch the attention of the public as much as the Kingfisher.

[Ollie]

Another superb installment Jeff, and those mating shots are absolutely brilliant photos.

Many thanks for sharing these intimate moments with us with us, and probably the best thing about all this is that it is being photographed with all the necessary permission, licence etc with no disturbance whatsoever to the birds themselves.

Roger

[jennyb]

Amazing stuff as usual, Jeff. I think we ought to pass the hat around to get some central heating for your hide - you must have almost frozen to death this last week

Jenny

[samuelmansfield]

Hi jeff,

great set of photos. I was given your name as someone who might be able to offer advice about how best to encourage kingfishers to land in a particular spot on a river bank. I work for a film company and we are filming in a ladys garden that backs onto a waterway that is frequented by kingfishers. We are setting up a series of cameras to film the wildlife that visits her garden and wondering what is the best way to attract the kingfisher to perch at the bottom of her garden. Alot of people just say to stick a pole in the ground at an angle and eventually the bird will land, but I was hoping you might have more specifics ie best angle, distance over water, best material e.t.c. Is there a website that offers this kind of advice? Is it as simple as just sticking a stick in the bank?

We will be filming from late next week,but need to get advice in the next day or 2, so anything you might suggest would be much appreciated!!

Many thanks,

Sam Mansfield