Against the sun, he was spotted in a tree north of Cydach Lock.

We followed him down to the Mond and got a shot of him in the sun (and the only photo taken all morning of him with the canal in view).

Then he was darting back behind the gardens of Capel Road to his perch opposite the car wash.

You are probably wondering by now by what right we are using ‘he’, and’him’. Well, a female kingfisher would,of course be wearing lipstick. I exagerrate only slightly. The female has an orange lower bill and as the bill we saw was all black it is probable that the beautiful bird we saw was a male.

We were so lucky that he stayed still so long for the photos but of course he was more concerned about spotting fish in the canal than modelling. He caught at leaast two fish in the five dives we saw him make and I got one shot of him with a catch.

Here is the very fuzzy photo I got of him with a small fish. The canal sustains much life.

In all our work to tidy up the canal we must ensure that we leave sufficient perches over the canal for these amazing fishers.

3.1.15

He was back again today and this time I got a better photo of him with a fish.