My day turned out to be interesting and eventful in the end.  With no vehicle at my disposal until around 3 I was confined to the house and had to give my Dipper watching a rest (which is no bad thing).   I decided to "chase up" my Schedule 1. Kingfisher license renewal rather than sit at home wishing I was out amongst it.   I had been starting to get just a bit concerned because I had not heard from Natural England (the licensing authority)  and time is moving on now.  Kingfishers will be pairing up any day  and starting to breed very soon and I need to get my hides in to place before that happens.   Any hide erection while the birds are tunnel digging would have a negative impact on them and cause the kind of disturbance which you absolutely need to avoid.  There was good news,  in short, my license is confirmed and  renewed so I continue to be one of only 34 or so people licensed in the UK to photograph Kingfishers at the nest.  I had an interesting conversation with the gentleman responsible for assessing license applications and he surprised me by saying that he was aware of my reputation as a photographer as he had seen my photographs on line, mainly on Birdguides (an amazing site by the way, I have been Photographer of the week there on 3 seperate occasions). . This was very nice to hear.  Last year both of my nest sites were flooded out, at one nest, twice so I am hoping that this year I can have some success.  So, now full of enthusiasm for Kingfishers and knowing that I am perfectly legal to do so, I went to search for some nesting activity.  It didn't take me long to find a very likely looking active nest  burrow and I retreated quickly having seen evidence of recent burrowing in an ideal position which is unlikely to have been "worked" by anything other than a Kingfisher.  I am the doyen of identifying kingfisher droppings and I am confiden that I can identify it with certainty and in this area there was copious amounts of it on and under what I would call perfect Kingfisher perches. I have a plan as to how I can observe this potential nest without being seen or compromising its success so photos to follow I am sure. In the meantime here's a picture of one of my recent Kingfisher shots.