I had a busy day yesterday, as a musician I took part in a Memorial Service at the local crematorium which was moving and worthwhile. Things like that help you to appreciate life and teach you to make the best of every opportunity that presents it's self. I have some lovely  friends that I am really close to, they are all musicians too, and until you have played in a band you can never know the camaraderie and pleasure collective music making can bring. Anyway to get to the point, in the early evening I went …….. yes you've guessed it ……. back to the Alphin Brook for the evening session, determined as I said to make the best of every opportunity. I arrived  just  a few minutes after 6 and had to remind myself at 6.35 when nothing had happened, that quite often it's like this and there can be long periods, particularly at the start of a session when your confidence can wane. Then, as if on cue, she arrived, now perky and more confident than yesterday, in fact very perky because what happened next really surprised me. Suddenly I heard  the sound of a Kingfisher calling as it flew past the hide, our female called and the newcomer landed next to her. There was a stand off between the two with the female posturing and making herself look as tall and big as possible. I couldn't get a good view of the "new" bird except very quickly because, (Murphy's Law), he was hidden behind a branch. The quick sight of him proved he was a male and also, by the colour of his feet, a youngster. I suspect that this would have been a sibling of the female, also on the look out for a territory of his own. After a minute or so the stand off ended as he flew down the brook followed by her in  pursuit ……… she had won one  of her first battles! Exactly 9 minutes later she returned,  alone now,  and preened, bathed and fished. Quite a good evening for her, and me as well. Here are a few shots from this great session.

For more images from this session visit here.

Here she is posturing to the intruder.

After getting rid of him she got on with some fishing and came up with this massive minnow. I didn't expect her to deal with it so well. I never saw the previous male deal with such a big fish as easily as she did. Incidentally just note how the colours of Kingfishers varies depending on the ambient light. They have no pigment in their back feathers. The colour is produced by iridescence. So when books describe the colour of young Kingfishers as duller than adults, that is not true when it comes to the "blue" feathers on the wings, back, head and tail. However, the orange on the chest can be slightly less bright.