A Kingfisher Photo-shoot at the St Albans Watercress Beds

13th December 2025

This was my first visit to this suburban reserve this winter and intended to see how the winter finch numbers were building up. As I approached the Water Rail pond a Goldcrest was flitting around in the Sallows which was a good start.

I then set up camp by the central feeder hoping for some winter finches to appear. After an hour I had not seen any Siskins or Redolls let alone Bramblings, in fact the only finches I saw were a couple of Chaffinches. So time for a walk around and I did eventually hear some Redpolls and managed to trace them to some tall Alders.

This bird couldn't be bothered to fly, so just hopped from one tree to another.

At that moment a couple of Siskins appeared, but were more tricky to photograph.

I then decided to call it a day and started to walk back to the entrance. As I approached the bridge over the main pond I saw a flash of blue shoot past and land on the bridge, a gorgeous adult male Kingfisher. For the next 10 minutes or so it posed in various locations around the small pond by the hide, and was best viewed from the bridge.

At that point it took off and put on a flying display....................

...................and finished the show with a hover.

I have seen Kingfishers here a few times but this is the first time I have seen one perched, let alone put on a flying display!!!!!