End of year review - Video 5

Like the water shrew of three days ago this was another new target for the trail camera and another one I came across by accident.  I had put a stake in the stream bed to support a camera looking for otters and noticed that a kingfisher was using it as a perch while looking for fish.  So I put in another stake with another camera to watch the top of the first stake.  And this was the result.

More from KingfisherCam

I see the kingfisher quite regularly when I go about checking the other trail cameras set for otters.  I also saw it one time recently when I was sitting in the hide although it was a fair way off and the light was poor.

The trail camera gets a much closer view.  The kingfisher continues to visit the stake I put in to support an otter trail camera but is coming less often and catching fewer fish, perhaps because there are fewer.  I think it is this year's bird because it still has a white tip to the beak and a trace of black on the legs.  (In a mature bird the beak tip is black and the legs and feet are pure bright orange.)

I am also pretty sure this bird is female - the orange colouring on the lower mandible isn't as extensive as some, probably because it is young, but it shows well in the right light.

In the first video the camera was aimed slightly lower than I had intended but it does mean we can see the splash.  The lens is also slightly misted up - something that happens quite often as the cameras are so close to water and the weather is cooler.

Two more videos showing successful fishing.  The first is probably the best I have had, apart from the sirens in the background.

In the last video the kingfisher sitting looking for prey but it does allow us a close look at the exquisite detail in the feathers.

One recording I don't have yet is catching a fish big enough to need bashing on the post before swallowing it - all so far have been small enough to be swallowed straight away.  However, the bird doesn't always come back to this perch after a dive so it may take bigger catches elsewhere for stunning.  Another thing I'd like to see is it regurgitate a pellet.  I'll keep the camera there while it is still visiting in the hope of capturing one or both of these.

KingfisherCam

I have a new target for the trail camera.  A few weeks ago I put in a stake to support a camera to watch for otters and noticed that a kingfisher was using it as a perch for fishing.  So I put in another stake for another camera to watch the first stake.  And this was the first recording.

If you enjoyed that, watch the second recording.

All the videos on this blog are embedded from YouTube (as Google owns both Blogger and YouTube) but fortunately you don't have to put up with adverts.  The image quality is limited although it is fine for most things.  As an experiment I have uploaded a slightly shorter version of the same video to Vimeo, which should be better quality.  (I have also learned how to embed it in the blog.)  It took ages to upload on my BT SuperSlow internet connection but here it is to see if we can tell the difference.  The original quality is amazing.

  

Since then there have been several more recordings but that is the only one so far where the kingfisher dived to catch a fish and returned to the post with it.  In the latest recording the kingfisher dived but went elsewhere with the fish (if it caught one).

Here are a couple more videos.

The last one was recorded in a gale.  Although it doesn't look it, this is a relatively sheltered spot and the kingfisher would have been happy fishing here if only some humans hadn't come along.

The camera is 40cm from the post and has a +2 dioptre lens to give good focus.  The only other bird that has triggered the camera so far is a wren.  It landed for just a second or two and looks a bit dowdy after the colours of the kingfisher.  We wrens like to keep a low profile.

Non-target species on TrailCam

The trail cameras regularly record animals they weren't set to look for, usually rats or wood mice but occasionally something more interesting.  Here are a few recent observations.  First on a camera set to look for an otter.  There was no sign in nearly three weeks but it did record a barn owl and a stoat, both firsts for me on trail camera.  The owl stopped for a drink during the night and nearly overbalanced and fell in.

On the same camera a stoat went past twice in the same direction, once in the day and once at night.

Then a real oddity.  A frog in the small mammal camera box.  Given that the frog is cold-blooded I am a bit surprised that the camera's PIR was triggered.

There was a second recording four minutes later but that was triggered by a shrew (yellow arrow).  The frog had moved to the back (red arrow).  The frog didn't appear on video again during the rest of that night and wasn't in the box next morning so it obviously managed to find its way out again.

Finally a recording from yesterday, again on a camera set to look for otters.  The first six frames recorded a kingfisher in the culvert.  I think it must have triggered the camera as it dived and was captured on the rise (you can see the water is disturbed in the background).  It is so brief you can't see what it is in real time on the video but it shows on freeze frame.  It is difficult to be sure but I think it has a fish in its beak.  I wonder if it had been using the camera as a perch to dive from.

I have once seen a kingfisher before on trail camera but never diving or in flight.

KingfisherCam

Another big surprise on one of my trail cameras.  I have never seen a kingfisher on the ground before.  Their tiny feet are adapted to perching on reeds and excavating nest tunnels but this one seemed quite comfortable standing on the mud.  As far as I can tell it is a mature adult male (bright orange feet and all-black bill).  In the last clip you can see it streaking off down the stream, often the only view you get of a kingfisher.

Kingfisher

I met a kingfisher recently while I was sitting hoping to see an otter.  This is a first year female, young as shown by the dark feet and female with an orange lower mandible.  She didn't stay long but she brightened up my day.

End of year favourites - Aves (elsewhere)

I haven't taken as many bird photos this year as usual, probably because I have been distracted by other things such as dragonflies, bees and hornets.  Here are a few birds I did see.

Kingfisher

This blog has been a bit overrun recently by hornets, dragonflies, foxes and so on, so it is high time for a change.  I had a great time watching this kingfisher from the hide in my local nature reserve yesterday.   It is a female (orange colour on the underside of the bill) and a juvenile (dark feet and white tip to the bill).

She was fishing quite successfully, making several catches including small fish

and what I think were probably damselfly larvae.

The kingfisher was flitting from perch to perch, in very bright sunlight but varying the angle of the light.  When the low orange sunlight was nearly behind the bird a lot of her feathers looked black.

Here the side in the sun is black whereas that in the shade shows more blue.

When she moved a bit more into the sun there was more blue.

In full sun the colours changed dramatically.

Other things change as she moves.  Here the back appears as a bright blue band.

Here there are three stripes down the back.

Although she was comfortable with the presence of people in the hide she was constantly looking out for danger from sparrowhawks.  Fortunately none appeared.