Exciting news!
So there is kingfisher news! Are you ready?
WE MIGHT HAVE TWO PAIRS BREEDING ON SITE!!! Woohoo!
And the first pair's eggs should be hatching some time between the end of the week and the middle of next week.
How exciting, lets have a quick update of what has happened with the kingfishers so far this year...
Fabulous action shot by Peter Hewitt
On 12 March a pair were first spotted investigating the bank at the Kingfisher Hide.
Since the 12 March the pair were seen really well - courting, investigating the bank and mating.
Between 1-6 April the female started laying eggs.
On 8-9 April a second male was spotted hanging around the bank, as you can imagine this caused a few 'arguments' as the original male tried to scare him off.
On 10 April the kingfishers started incubating.
On 14 April the female was spotted being chased by a sparrowhawk! The male and female were seen later in the day, so the sparrowhawk didn't catch one!
There was a bit of drama on 17 April, after four kingfishers were spotted! It seemed that a second pair had arrived at the reserve and the original pair were trying to chase them off their territory!
On the 20 April the second pair were spotted investigating the sandmartin bank that can be seen from the Gadwall hide.
23-24 April the pair at the sandmartin bank seem to have chosen a hole, its in the third row down in the centre. It's still early in their breeding, so they might not stick around, but fingers crossed! The pair at the Kingfisher hide are sitting on eggs still, the young should hatch some time between the end of this week to the middle of next week! Watch out for the adults taking fish into the bank!
Squee! It's so exciting, TWO pairs of kingfishers!I have lots to tell you, but I will do a second update later on today!
Bye for now!
Hi Louise
After they hatch how long roughly before the little ones show their faces?
Hi Steve,
We tend not to see the young ones at all. The best time to see kingfishers is when the young have hatched and the adults are in and out of the bank every ten minutes bringing the young fish. The young fledge after 24-25 days, but here they tend to do it very early in the morning, and hide away, deep in the bushes, so we don't see them.
If you want to see kingfishers come over when they young have hatched! Keep an eye on here and I will let you all know when we thing they have hatched!
I hope that helped,
Louise