Kingfishers on the River Stort

 24th November 2020

Today's adventure was to go in search of Kingfishers along the River Stort. The habitat looked ideal with plenty of trees along the bank of the slow-flowing river and many over-hanging branches for the Kingfishers to sit on and peer down at the water in search of fish. Sadly the forecast sunny spells did not emerge and to make things worse the Kingfishers, instead of using the overhanging branches for fishing, were sitting deep inside foliage including bank-side brambles making the light even worse.

However, one Kingfisher kept us occupied for a couple of hours as it flew up and down the stream and sat inside the vegetation making photography challenging. The bird had the remains of a white tip to the bill and the first signs of orange on the base of the lower mandible and therefore a young female. Apparently there is also a male in the area but it did not put in an appearance whilst we were there.

A nice spot and well worth another visit sometime. Thanks to Richard Stead for the info.