Common Kingfishers Alcedo atthis in a small London park
This film illustrates a pair of Common Kingfishers Alcedo atthis, filmed during their courtship period (January - March) in a small London park. The opportunities for filming and photographing these birds were increased considerably after Storm Henk had toppled a dying Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum so that some of the branches fell so that they overlapped a well-stocked stream regularly fished by the Kingfishers, Little Egrets Egretta garzetta and Grey Herons Ardea cinerea. Within 24 hours the male Kingfisher was exploring the many new observation perches and one of the overwintering Little Egrets had adopted the fallen tree as a new territorial focal point. The Kingfishers were also sometimes seen to be shadowing the Little Egret when fishing for Common Minnows Phoxinus phoxinus, the most readily available prey species. Filming Kingfishers can present technical difficulties as auto-focusing mechanisms don't appear to like orange feathers! The video equipment being used also had no viewfinder, so it was not always easy to see the subject at all, far less use the manual focussing required to obtain sharply focussed images. This meant that only some of the material obtained was useable, and this is the principal reason for editing three months' worth of clips into a single film - of a longer duration than most of the films posted on this channel. Many still photographs were taken during the same period (these may be seen on David's web site and in his published books), and a small number of these have been included too.
