It may not be what I need, but at least one has landed on the perch. As you can see, this is a female due to the red lower beak, males are black. Could this be Princessa? Quite possible, I really hope so.
Interestingly enough, this was captured at 11:23am which is around a similar time to when my Nature Walk came near this area. It could be that she landed on the perch to hide from us.
This morning I sat at the river and watched a Kingfisher (or maybe Kingfishers) flying back and forth along the river. I’m almost certain that one of them was carrying a fish in its beak and I noticed that they/it was going back to the same location. This location is on the riverbank on our land, but very difficult to get a good view unless I swim!
I believe that there is a nest site here as they constantly flew back and forth, you could also sense they didn’t like my presence so I took a terrible picture and left them to it. There is a spot on the opposite side of the river that I can watch from a distance, however, it involves climbing a fence of someone else’s property. I will find the owner of the field and ask their permission first.
Here is the terrible picture, it was quick reactions, but either the Kingfisher is flying too fast for even 1/2500sec, or possible, the camera has missed the focus. I think it’s a combination of both. If I was sat here waiting, I would of pre-focused on part of the river and waited for the Kingfisher to fly into the focal plane.
I’ve installed a new Perch in a perfect diving spot for the Kingfishers and also placed a Trail Cam to monitor it for any activity.
Hopefully, within the next few days we’ll see some Kingfishers landing on it.
I use Flickr (UPDATE, I no longer use Flickr due to their price increases) to showcase my photos and don’t very often interact on the social side of it. However, this year I added this photo of Princessa, our resident Kingfisher to the “Your Best Shot 2017” just for fun and of course for more exposure.
Last night we finally had the rain that was promised and then some more to make sure.
It rained in almost Ark-building proportions. A persistent, heavy downpour for many hours. Although not enough to get the river flowing, it has had a very welcome change to the riverbed.
As you can see, Princessas´s (our resident Kingfisher) territory has been filled. The two water pools that she has been fishing in has turned into one very large pool. You can see the perch in the centre of the photo, the brown-coloured water shows the outline of the existing pool that was drying up. This is just dust that has washed in and will settle very quickly.
This morning I was back in the Kingfisher Hide, hoping for more pictures of “Princesa”, yes, she now has a name. Portuguese for Princess which I think suits a young bird with royalty in her name.
Princesa beat me there again, she was already on the perch. I had to wait until she left before I could approach the hide. Once in, I sat for an hour waiting patiently and uncomfortably to see her again. This time it was a high-speed fly by as she whizzed past. I can only assume she was going to the large River Pool where I spotted the Otter a few weeks ago (link here). I waited another 20 minutes when she finally came to the perch.
When I’m concealed like this, I have a rule that I never start firing the camera the second something comes into shot. The reason for this is that I want the animal to get comfortable with its surroundings before making a noise. She dived into the pool, came out empty beaked and then decided to move onto the next river pool where I could see her dive again. She didn’t return again today.
Whilst I was in the hide, Eric(a) came to visit. He/She (very difficult to sex) is a Little Egret that is always present near the pools. This is causing a bit of an issue for Princesa as they need to share the fish. Of course, a Little Egret will eat a lot more than a Kingfisher.
I think there is a problem starting. A couple of weeks ago, these pools were full of small fish. Today, I looked in all 3 pools and struggled to even see one fish. It seems that the pools are starting to empty. This is going to cause a problem for the wildlife that rely on these stocks for food. We are now in desperate need for some heavy rain to start the river flowing. I think it’s Eric(a) that maybe clearing out the pools and of course, the Otter maybe taking a large portion too.
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