UPDATE (long overdue!) – 4th July 2008
Part 1 (covering period from 24th to 30th April)
*****************************************
REMINDER
As a fairly rare and easily disturbed bird, the Kingfisher is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. If you “intentionally or recklessly” disturb a Kingfisher whilst trying to photograph it “in, on, at or near” the nest or whilst it has dependent young, and without the necessary Licence from Natural England, you may be committing a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to 6 months.
******************************************
First of all, many thanks to everyone for your kind comments and continuing encouragement since my last update on the 24th April (especially to Davy G for the ever so gentle reminder!) – can 10 weeks really have gone by since then?
I’m really sorry to have kept you all in suspense for so long but I’m struggling to find the time to do everything at the moment and with several ‘projects’ now on the go and with more and more time being spent ‘in the field’ (plus 2 glorious weeks away on the west coast of Scotland during May, resulting in a couple of thousand of photos yet to be edited/processed!), I’m afraid I’ve had little time to spend in front of the computer and my visits to WAB have therefore been few and very brief in recent weeks.
I hope this update makes up for some of my recent tardiness but there’s a lot to tell you about with all sorts of twists and turns, drama, some violence and good and bad news so, be warned, it’s quite a long read. So much so that I’ve had to split it into two parts – I’ll try to finish and post the 2nd part within the next 24 hours. By the way I’d recommend you get yourselves a nice caffeine-based drink to help to see you through it!
Incidentally, in answer to Kash’s question – all my photos are taken with a Canon EOS30D camera, mainly using the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS zoom lens (aka ‘the Pump’) but, more recently, also with a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS zoom.
Right then, to briefly re-cap - in my 24th April update I said “I expect hatching to take place within the next 3 – 4 days” and at that point in time the birds were on their 4th nesthole of this breeding season, having been flooded out 3 times. Here’s some extracts from my diary/observation notes since then:-
Saturday 26th April – on site by 5.30am. Approximately 1 hour later the female emerged from the nesthole onto a nearby perch and started calling loudly and in a rather agitated state. I scanned the area for signs of what might be troubling her and spotted a squirrel in a tree overhanging the nesthole, though several metres above it. This, I thought, must be the cause of the bird’s obvious anxiety. How wrong I was – as moments later the female flew off just around some bushes and out of my vision only to return almost immediately followed by 3 other Kingfishers with all 4 birds flying towards me in a very compact group (literally inches apart) and calling loudly – another intruding pair had entered the territory!
The resident pair then remained very active, flitting around the nest site area rather nervously for the next 10 minutes or so.
Half an hour later the two males flew right by my hide, one in hot pursuit of the other and screeching loudly, whilst the female re-entered the nesthole. The two males then continued chasing each other around the area until I left the site some two hours later and with the female remaining in the nesthole throughout.
Tuesday 29th April – I arrived on site at 6.35am to the sound of loud agitated calling as I approached. As I entered my on-site hide the reason became obvious – the two males were sat on perches near the nesthole behaving very aggressively, calling loudly and then proceeded to chase each other around again.
At 6.50am the female flew in carrying a tiny fish which she took straight into the nesthole – a clear indication that hatching had taken place! This was, of course, excellent news after having been flooded out of their 3 previous nestholes. However, with the continued presence of the intruding male and the resulting disturbance to the parent birds’ normal feeding regime I couldn’t help feeling some concern for the future wellbeing of the hatchlings.
Here’s a photo of the female with one of the tiny fish brought in to feed the hatchlings –
Meanwhile the two males continued their loud squabbling, chasing each other all round the nest site area making horrible screeching noises and with occasional stand-offs as they perched and glared at each other aggressively, sometimes as little as a half metre apart and often on the same branch or perch, before one flew directly at the other and the chasing/screeching kicked off again. On two occasions within the space of about 40 minutes the two males fought each other so frantically they actually fell into the water locked together in battle and with one bird clearly trying to drown the other by holding it under the water by the neck. This was really quite distressing to watch and whilst I was tempted to leave my hide in an effort to disturb them I felt that the intensity of their fighting was such that a temporary break in it would achieve absolutely nothing. I therefore decided, somewhat reluctantly, to let nature take its course – survival of the fittest and all that.
Sadly I missed the chance to get any really decent images of all this action. As many of you know, it’s sometimes difficult enough to get a good shot of a single perched Kingfisher and, in my experience, it’s practically impossible to get one of two or more of them in flight. In any case, I was too far away from the action and with the wrong lens fitted to my camera. However, there follows a selection of very poor quality images which I’ve had to crop and process far too much but which I hope will at least convey a sense of the drama, intensity and aggression of the action I’ve described.
Here's a few shots of the birds chasing and attacking each other in mid-air-
Here they're having a 'stand off' (or perhaps just pausing for breath) -
and here's some of them trying to drown each other -
and then breaking up -
At about 8.20am and during one of their breaks from fighting I watched one of the males catch and quickly consume two small fish from a perch quite near the nesthole. He clearly had no intention of taking either of these fish to the recently hatched young birds and I believe the male bird concerned was the intruder. Here’s a photo of him –
Just after this the female emerged from the nesthole and flew off, at which point the bird I believe to be the intruding male entered!! I feared the worst – ie. that he had seized the opportunity to enter the nest to kill the young (as intruding males often do).
This male remained in the nesthole for almost 12 minutes and on exiting made a couple of cleansing dips in the water before settling on a tree root protruding from the bank nearby. Moments later the female returned with another tiny fish which she took into the nesthole and the male bird flew off.
It was now 8.45am and I had to leave the site to go to work. I hadn’t seen the resident male for almost an hour by then and as I left the site I was more than a little concerned that he had been injured, scared away or perhaps even killed by the intruder. Also, that the intruding male may have killed the chicks!
Wednesday 30th April – Needless to say, after yesterday’s dramatic action I was on site at first light (5.05am) and desperate to learn the fate of the hatchlings and their parents. On this visit I decided to take up position in my dome hide on the bank just opposite the nesthole and within a few minutes of doing so a male arrived and briefly hovered in front of the hole before flying off again – but which male was it? - I’m afraid I just couldn’t tell as I only saw it briefly and in flight.
A few minutes later a male re-appeared, this time carrying a small fish, and went into the nesthole. He stayed in there for nearly 10 minutes and then the female arrived (with another small fish) and also entered the nesthole. The male then came out of the hole and flew off. This feeding activity clearly demonstrated that the young birds (or at least some of them) were still alive. I was so pleased to see this and that all my fears for the hatchlings and their ‘Dad’ had apparently been unfounded.
At 5.50am the female was back again with another small fish – the 3rd of the morning – and at 6.10am she brought in the 4th.
Soon after I heard what I thought sounded like the characteristic ‘plop’ of a Water Vole entering the water. I carefully looked all around the water’s edge within my range of vision and, sure enough, a minute or two later a Water Vole came swimming around and clambered out onto a section of low banking beneath some exposed tree roots and just a few metres from my hide position. This was my first sighting of a Water Vole in more than a hundred visits to the site and adds weight to my efforts to preserve the area from the threat of development. Although it was in a rather deeply shaded position I did manage to get a few shots of it and here’s a couple of them –
Returning to the Kingfishers - by 7.35am the parent birds had brought in a total of 8 small fish between them and, so far, I had seen nothing of the other male. However, as the female was leaving the nest after the 8th delivery I heard some agitated calling from some little distance away and just as a male bird arrived silently (ie without calling), and without a fish, onto a perch near the nesthole. This male went into the nesthole and stayed in there. Then, just after 8am, the female returned with the 9th fish of the day; went into the nesthole but immediately retreated from it (coming out backwards) and flew off. So far as I was aware the male that had gone in some 25 minutes earlier was still in there and this presumably explained why the female had reversed out – the nesthole tunnel of a Kingfishers’ nest is only wide enough for one bird and they can only turn around in the nest chamber at the end of the tunnel - but which male was in there and why had he stayed in so long?
Unfortunately, at this point the area was disturbed by some passing dog walkers and, as I had to leave for work anyway, I took the opportunity to unpeg my hide and leave the site without disturbing the birds – again, as yesterday, feeling a little unsure about exactly what was going on in the nesthole.
Incidentally, with hatching having taken place on either Sunday 27th or Monday 28th April and working on the average fledgling period for Kingfishers of between 23 and 27 days, I reckoned the young birds would be leaving the nest between about the 20th and 25th May – right in the middle of my holiday in Scotland! And so it seemed that with this brood I wouldn’t get to see the fledglings actually leaving the nest.
Finally and as mentioned earlier, I’ll post Part 2 of this update (covering the period right up to last Sunday) very shortly.
Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers and Barn Owls)
*****************************************
REMINDER
As a fairly rare and easily disturbed bird, the Kingfisher is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. If you “intentionally or recklessly” disturb a Kingfisher whilst trying to photograph it “in, on, at or near” the nest or whilst it has dependent young, and without the necessary Licence from Natural England, you may be committing a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to 6 months.
****************************************** 
Re: Kingfisher Diary (with photos) 
Linear Mode
