EE and I took an early morning trip down the the Kingfisher area. Mostly I guess to see if they were still around or had they moved on.
Some “Pe, Pe, Pe, Pe” came from the forest just off the track, so we ventured in to at least catch a glimpse of one of them. Then a longer, “Skracrrch” call. Now, the books will say this is a call that the birds use on returning to a nest, and they do. But, it is also a pair contact call I think, as It’s often used by a pair away from the nest.

The area we were walking into has some very tall, old Red River Gums, so, perhaps, they had found a spare opening after all.

Another call about 50-60m in front of me, and a flash of blue. Ah ha. there you are.
The area is quite undualting with little water courses. I think most if it was formed when the nearby golfcourse was built and all the unused earth was dumped along the river bank. It also might have been designed as a levee to keep any flood water from reaching the golfcourse.
But—water being what it is found ways to bypass that when the river came over the banks.

There are quite a few wallaby tracks through the undergrowth, and I was looking for a way to get across one of the water courses, and swung round past a large old stump, when a flash of blue went right past my knee. EE, calmly said,” Did you see that?” We pondered where it had come from, and couldn’t decide if it had come from the grass in front of the stump, or had the bird flown around the stump.
The second bird then landed on a branch nearby, and the penny, if that is the way it works, dropped.

There is a nest somewhere near here.

We retreated down the water course and up to higher ground about 30metres away. Time to sit and see what happens. The second bird sat.
After about 15 minutes, with much “Skraccrch”ing calls, the first one returned and sat on a horizontal branch about 5 metres from the old stump. Then, dropped down, landed on the side of the stump, and with a little bit of wriggling, slipped into a hole in a join in the stump.

Found you.

The stump is very old. It has at least three growth scars. The oldest is overgrown with what would have been a new growth many years ago, and now is dead. The “new” growth had attempted to heal over the oldest wood and now it formed a line that over the years, had begun to rot.
Somehow or other the birds had either opened up a tiny crack, or just as likely had burrowed to get into the older rotten wood inside, which no doubt had deteriorated into a respectable chamber for their operations. How they would know it was hollow is also a mystery.

The overlap meant they had to squeeze under the ‘new’ growth to access the hole, (they would over the course begin to open up the hole and make the entrance a lot easier.)
It seems a feature of Sacred Kingfisher holes that they make an opening and then it turns to the right so that the entrance has a ‘plug’ that prevents anyone, human or otherwise, peeking in.

Nature has a way of not giving up, and out of the second growth, a third new growth on the far side of the stump had sent out some branches and leaves.

We waited.

After some time, the second bird—no doubt the male—took off, and within a few minutes had returned and deposited some food inside the hole.
Looking Good.

Time to survey the possible photo sites. There was a large prickly bush some 15-20m from the nest, and would protect it from view from anyone passing on the nearby track, and between the bush and the nest were several small trees with horizontal branches that they seemed to use as staging spots to enter the nest.

We have huge respect for the privacy and security of a nest site, so were not comfortable working between the bush and nest, so it had to be either one side, or the other of the bush. I did have visions of carrying down the tripod, and radio contol, setting it up moving back away from the area, but the best shot posibilities seemed to be when the birds came and landed before entering. And that meant being able to change as they moved about.
So we settled for the bush.

We sat and watched for another hour or so, and gained a good understanding of their movements, and were well prepared for a return visit.

Besides, just nearby out of sight was a large log on the ground that would be a good spot to rest for a cuppa.

Enjoy