An Update on the Kingfishers at Rye Meads

29th March 2019

We must be getting close to egg time now so time for a visit to Rye Meads to see how the Kingfishers are getting on. Water levels at the Draper Hide are still very high with only one distant island just getting its head above water, so straight on to the Gadwall Hide. Here the water levels were much better and had attracted a few Wigeon to graze on the bank right in front of the hide.

Then after lunch what better than to have a bath?

The muddy margins of the lake had also attracted a Green Sandpiper whose reflection showed well on the flat calm water.

I only had about an hour at the Kingfisher Hide to try and work out what was going on, but I was also able to gather some information on what had been happening during the day. The female sat in the trees for abour 15 minutes before flying in to the nest hole. She then returned to the trees and plunged into the water to wash the sand off.

She then flew off.

From the behaviour of the male and female during the day I would suspect that there are eggs in the nest chamber but not a full clutch, which would explain the intermittent sitting behaviour. On this assumption the hatching date would be about the 19th-21st April.