Kingfishers Breeding
by David Alban - 14:45 on 14 July 2012
I know two pairs of Kingfishers; "The Croft Pair" and "The Connie Pair". Currently I only have good photos of the Croft pair - 12 in total, 3 of which are available to purchase. They are all the same shot, so just different poses of the bird. I first discovered the nest of the Croft pair. It was May 14th when I discovered it. There had been a lot of activity around a particular area so I was going there early every morning to try to get shots. I switched sides of the beck and pretty soon, saw a Kingfisher disappear into a hole in the bank. I got a few shots of it that day, but couldn't return as I didn't (and still don't) have a schedule 1 licence, required to photograph Kingfishers at the nest.
I kept monitoring them from afar, trying to reckon how far through the nesting process they were. Unfortunately, this year the weather has just been awful. We've suffered several uncharacteristically heavy and long periods of rain this year. During these rainy periods, the rivers and becks get higher. This has two effects on Kingfishers. For any which are nesting, it obviously presents a great threat of flooding the nest, or making it inaccessible. However, there is also another issue; as the water rises, it often gets faster and more turbulent, and always becomes thick with mud and silt. This makes fishing extremely difficult, if not impossible. This year on the 23rd June, the Tees rose very high and flooded the Croft pair's nest. Given how long it had been active, the young must have been quite close to fledging at this point, making it all the more unfortunate. I don't think the Connie pair were flooded, though when I had a look at their nest site, the water was very close and had been higher. They will certainly have had issues getting to it and difficulty fishing.
On the Tuesday after the flooding, I went down to the Croft pair's old nest site. They were still active around that area, though it was clear the old nest had been completely washed away. I should note at this point that this is not uncommon, though this has been a particularly bad year. On that day I got the shots of the female bird which are for sale on this site, one of which is at the top of each page. The day after, I discovered the new nest. They had begun digging it quite close to the first one but worryingly, lower though still a good metre or two from where the water should be. Again, I couldn't go back there - knowing there was an active nest and without a licence I am obliged to keep away from it. I monitored them from afar again but soon afterwards they abandoned it. They were still digging it when they left it and I don't know why they abandoned it. I have heard them around Croft a few times since then, but much less than is typical for this time of year. At present, I don't know what they are doing.
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