Three Kings

On Thursday night I headed down to Glasbury in the hope of mist-netting the odd  Green Sandpiper or Greenshank on the river and to see if there were any Sand Martins or Yellow Wagtails present to have a try at. The weather deteriorated once I got there however and the wind picked up too strong to do very much. I decided to have a go for the waders anyway and did manage to catch one Green Sandpiper out of the four present but, as Sod's Law dictates, it was the same one I've caught twice already this autumn. After an uncomfortable few hours sleep in the car I opened the nets again in the morning hoping for better luck in the slightly improved weather. Only caught 4 birds all morning, a retrap Common Sandpiper and 3 Kingfishers!  It might have been a bit boring but I managed to keep myself entertained digging the car out of the ox-bow!!

Adult male (left) and juvenile male Kingfisher

Kingfisher ageing is all about the feet - bright orange in adults and darker in young birds. A warning though, they aren't all this obvious!