This is rapidly turning in to one of the best weeks I have had for birds in the garden and round and about. This morning my Kingfisher experience was absolutely stunning. I climbed out of bed having to force myself a bit to be honest, it was warm and outside a quick peep out of the window in the pre-dawn light showed an icy cold  snow covered day. The thermometer was registering minus 6 now and it was a daunting prospect to face it. But I am so, so glad that I did.  I was cosy by the time I reached the hide, cosy and comfortable and as I viewed the the perch in front of me I couldn't help getting excited just at the thought of the bird landing there, if it did it was going to be,…….. well just perfect.  Then here he was. I saw him zooming ever close from up stream and then he landed right there with a stickleback grasped safely in his beak. It was 8.28 when he landed and continued to beat the living daylights out of it. I snapped away as you do and was glad when he calmed down a bit and I could get a good shot without him moving too much.  It was still a little bit on the dim side and I wasn't getting the fastest shutter speeds. But I got this wonderful image…… by best ever picture yet, surely?

He ate his fish and immediately left and flew back upstream. I am  to know the behavior of these birds and I guessed correctly that he would be back. Within a minute he was, with yet another minnow. Even in the short time that he had been away the light had improved and I got some more good shots. The same pattern was repeated and he returned this time to a perch opposite, not so near but only 12 feet or so. The light was not so good there because of it being tucked away a bit under the bank but I still get a few photos this time with a minnow. In all he caught 5 fish in about 15 minutes. I worked out that if he eats 10 to 12 fish a day which is pretty much what the experts say, then that's 1500 fish since  I first saw him back in September. With that in mind it is easy to understand why they are so territorial, you would not want to share your precious fish with another Kingfisher that's for sure. One interesting fact about birds, particularly small species with a high metabolic rate is that you can't half feed a bird. If there is not enough food to go around then they will perish pretty quickly. It becomes obvious that our little brook is very precious to the local environment and it wouldn't take a lot to wipe out the fish stocks and consequently the Kingfisher that relies on them. Here he is with another Three Spined Stickleback – Gasterostreus aculeatus. A little bit of research has told me that the Stckleback, named of course because of the spines is not only well known throughout Western europe but also native to North America which is a big surprise to me.

In the next shot you can see how well positioned a Kingfishers eyes are as he looks straight in to the camera.