I've been spending a lot of time on the river watching the kingfisher family, but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching the other wildlife that's about. The local dippers seem to have a great year in terms of successful breeding (blog post to follow) and there are usually two about close to where I sit, and this evening I was treated to one of them catching a fish. I spotted it as it flew directly toward me before veering off and landing on a large rock to my right with the fish in its beak. I've seen a lot of fish despatched by the kingfishers recently and the dipper attempted much the same method, just not quite as adeptly! It took quite a few attempts with the dipper dropping the fish
Conventional wisdom tells us that once the juvenile kingfishers fledge from the nest there is a 3-4 day window where the parents will teach the young how to fish, where to fish and will keep them stocked up on tiddlers while they learn the ropes. Then when those learning days are over the parents will aggressively move the juveniles along chasing them off the territory. Here’s a quote from the RSPB website “Once out of the nest, the young are fed for only four days before the adults drive them out of the territory and start the next brood.” Last week that window opened for me when the local kingfishers fledged, but sometimes what you read isn’t always what happens! I first noticed the juven
As mentioned in a previous blog I'm always looking for potential perches where I think a kingfisher "should" sit. In practice it rarely seems to work so I have recently put out some perches to see what would happen. I know kingfishers are curious and have heard they will quite quickly investigate new perches. I guess with the ever changing geography of rivers and riverbanks, perches get washed away and new ones arrive so they need to investigate. The first one I put out was soon being used but I hadn't quite thought through how or where I would be able to sit in order to take any pictures! So last Sunday I tried again and thoroughly considered my options. Fingers crossed. Monday night the ma
