Day: April 10, 2025

Writing this up now—several months later—it made me think how quickly the time we spent with the clutch sped by. They are, no doubt, off for their winter layover further north. The adults to ponder a return season, and the young to set up families of their own.

WIthin only a few days of being out on the wing, the young were beginning to learn hunting skills, and quickly became confident at the drop and grab technique.
Dad now began to have time to look after the other skills that no doubt a young Kingfisher must master.

About 150m along the river from their territory a pair of Collared Sparrowhawks had begun a late nesting, normally they would have their young out and about well before the end of the year, but it wasn’t until mid-January, just about the time of the young Kingfishers training weeks that the two young Sparrowhawks fledged. So it was not unusual to hear the crys coming through the forest as they learned to swing out over the trees and chase one another through the understory.

On several occasions one wandered over the Kingfisher location. Dad would sit in on a branch in an open area and call very loudly and make lots of wing and tail flourishes. I concluded it was as much a warning for his young to take cover or at least be aware of the danger, as it perhaps was to attract the Sparrowhawk’s attention. Depending on the threat level, sometimes he would land on a branch under some leaves, and make himself very thin, and point his beak skyward, almost vertically. He could hold that pose for several minutes until the danger had flown off further along the river.

I only saw one of the young adopt the same pose, but as they were so spread out most of the time, it was impossible to locate them all at one time.

By the end of three weeks, the young were pretty much independent, and became harder to find. Eventually we had to conclude they had moved away from the nursery area and our time with them was over for the season.

I have one more post to make next week, mostly portraits, as we had lots of opportunities of the young landing close or hunting and sitting nearby to eat.

Enjoy.