Kingfisher

Kingfisher silhouette

The Kingfisher

Kingfishers at King's Dyke, Cambridgeshire

Kingfisher

......or two!

Fish on a Friday

A male Kingfisher, told from a female on account of his all black bill, the female has an orange base to the lower part of the bill, a kind of lipstick! The above bird was seen on my recent trip to the Ouse Washes and was seen fishing and at one point I managed to get a couple of shots of the bird with a fish in his bill, not great as the sun decided to go in and so the bird is a bit dark. More practice required.

New Year, new start

Another year of listing has ended and I am quite glad that it has. 2011 in the PBC area was good for some, there were some cracking birds seen, but not by me! A juvenile Night Heron was seen by 3 local birders, but by the time me and Chris Orders had arrived on site, the bird had vanished ; a Pied Flycatcher was found in a local garden and I was away ; a couple of Bean Geese were seen near Langtoft and a female Scaup on Deeping High Bank and again both had vanished by the time I had arrived on site! All in all, a pretty miserable year for my local list, a paltry 169 species were seen, but some goodies were in there, including Raven, Wood Warbler and White-fronted Goose. Maybe this year will be better?

January 1st is traditionally a day when birders are out and about starting their lists. Not for me, as it is Lisa`s birthday and so she, quite rightly, comes first. We went out locally on the 2nd and got a few birds, the White-fronted Goose is still at Ferry Meadows CP and a lovely Kingfisher was seen, but my year list will start with a vengeance at the weekend.