Kingfisher

 I don't very often see kingfishers along the river Eden, and was waiting until I could take a reasonable photograph to accompany this before posting. I still haven't got a satisfactory photo but it's bucketing with rain outside and not conducive for photography so here is a shot from earlier this tear - poor light and heavily cropped!

These electric blue beauties fly fast and low over the water and quickly disappear into the riverside vegetation. This one is an adult male ( I can tell from his beak which is all black - females have a reddish lower mandible and juniors have a white tip to the beak).

Kingfishers are sensitive to polluted rivers and are on the "Amber list" of threatened birds. The birds have a very high pitched call (audible over the sound of running water). The nest is usually a burrow in a bank above a river - look for a burrow with whiter "bird lime" beneath it to spot an occupied one. The birds usually have favourite hunting perches from which to dive and catch small fish. Kingfishers prefer fairly shallow water to hunt in and it obviously needs to be clear enough for them to see their prey.

Kingfishers are monogamous and are territorial - the length of river they regard as "territory" varies hugely depending on the available food from a 100m to several km.

Diary

Its been raining pretty solidly for a couple of days. There has been some flooding to the West of the county but its not too bad here although all the streams and rivers are at their highest levels since before the summer. Its windy too!