This morning at 8.10 and the young Kingfisher was there on the perch in front of me.  He was hunting for breakfast and quite quickly he spied a fish. The dive pictured above produced a lovely little male Stickleback.  

He landed back where he had left from and then had qiute a struggle withthe fish which was in full breeding condition. He had hold of it  by the tail.  He struggled for ages and ages trying to get it down. At one point it almost disappeared down his throat but he spat it out again and then beat it some more to soften it before finally managing to swallow it.

Fish are always swallowed head first so that fins and spines fold down along the body and they can slip down in to the crop easily. That is crucial with  spiny fish like Sticklebacks.  I can image that death could occur if that happened.  I have regularly seen Kingfishers with Sticklebacks stuck to the soft parts of the mouth as they struggle to turn them and beat them repeatedly.  This beating invariable  dislodges the fish.

When he had finished feeding he dived in again for more but this time he was unsuccessful and with real purpose off he flew.

Tomorrow is another day, sunny weather is promised and I am hopeful of another opportunity to photograph some more action shots.  At the wood hide, the feeders have been topped up and a fresh Rabbit carcass left for the Buzzards.  Terry tells me that he saw Buzzards today back in the territory and above the wood in the direction of my hide. i also saw them as I drove back along he road nearby. A new permanent hide is going to be built close to my feeding station.  This is going to be great and should improve my chances of Buzzard photo's  even more.  We are going to include two-way glass which will allow me to look outside and not be seen within.  I will carpet the inside and line the walls to insulate and this "home from home" will be just perfect.  I cant wait.