Its now June 1st and it's two weeks since I first realised that the Kingfishers at my licensed site had successfully fledged at least 3 youngsters. Things have got quieter and quieter around the site as every day has gone by, so much so that this evening I even began to think that they had moved on to another site. This morning it had been an hour before I heard, and then saw a bird and then because of walkers nearby it didn't linger. Of course, the female could have been in the nest all along, there is absolutely no way of knowing. Then this evening, again it was extremely quiet and it was also almost an hour before I first heard a bird and like this morning, its possible that the female was in the nest and I suspect that this was the case. With the male calling to my left my attention was drawn to that bird and I couldn't be sure if the female left the nest burrow, not being able to look in two directions at once. Then I caught sight of the female who was calling from near to the nest burrow. This was just the result I had been hoping to see. Then I witnessed some very interesting behaviour . I watched her fly up to the nest but instead of flying in, it hovered around the entrance for at least 5 seconds but probably more before returning to the mud beneath. It postured repeatedly, crouching low with an outstretched beak, bobbing up and then back down again which I took to be an invitation to mate. The male was nowhere to be seen now! This went on for a minute or se before she flew up to the burrow and disappeared inside. I have no idea if eggs have been laid, but my suspicions are leaning towards that.
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