As the year progressed it just got better and better. Talk about lucky.
The first was the courting pair on the River Rea, I could hear them calling each other from a couple hundred metres away. They were so loud as they chased each other up and down the River Rea looking for a nest site. This pair then gave me even more surprises when I then found them courting where the female took a fish from the male;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88816303@N08/16418004294/
Mating a few times early one morning on the River Rea,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88816303@N08/16417196674/in/photostream/
They then had a nest, then they got down to feeding the young in the nest. Then they waited outside the nest with food, trying to tempt the young out;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88816303@N08/18233020256/in/photostream/
Before finally I saw a fledgling come out of the nest and sit in some bushes whilst the parents bought it food before then flying off with it for a fishing lesson.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88816303@N08/18281453866/in/photostream/
If all this wasn't enough, I then got to see them find the second nest, repeat all the above, except the mating this time and successfully have a second brood and see another fledgling. What was also good about this pair of Kingfishers was the female who I had found a few months before on the Bourn Brook. She then made her way to the Rea for the mating season and the other females who had been on the Rea over the winter were I presume seen off by the territorial male who flew up and down the Rea. He had to see off another Kingfisher that flew right past the first nest. This certainly spooked the female who hid for a while. She was also spooked by a Heron that almost discovered the nest and low flying crows. Here she is outside the second nest;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88816303@N08/19600238206/in/photostream/
There were many other highs of which I will write more of.
In December just when I thought it would quieten down, I then got lucky to find a pair of Kingfisher on the River Cole in Birmingham at the Kingfisher Country Park. At first I just thought it was just lucky when one morning in very bad light I just caught them fishing either side of a bridge. Though I was not totally convinced. I then saw more proof when they were chasing and calling each other before I then saw then flying along the River calling each other with the two tone call. It got even better in December when I found two more further along the River Cole on the Kingfisher Country park probably five miles from the other pair. Even better was I got my best photo's yet of a Kingfisher very busy fishing that did not mind me taking photo's or people crossing a bridge only a few metres away from it. It knew it was safe, down on the River dam wall, fishing away. I then even found a Canal Kingfisher. In all I found ten Birmingham Kingfisher in a week and I had seen another few a couple weeks before so I know Kingfishers are doing well in urban Birmingham.
