The dinner menu

While photographing the rosellas at Zealandia last weekend, I mentioned to a fellow photographer that thing I would like to see next was a kingfisher nest.  I was really happy when she told me where to find one and then somewhat frustrated that I had to wait a whole week before I could go see it.  Having not seen the chicks she couldn’t tell me how old they were, just that they could be heard inside the nest so I hoped they hadn’t fledged before I got back there.  Today we set out early for Zealandia again and went in search of the kingfisher nest.  It wasn’t hard to find, so I set up camp not far from it and within a couple of minutes a kingfisher landed on the fence beside me. She wasn’t at all pleased that I was there and flew off in disgust.  I figured I was too close, so moved a little further away not wanting to upset the nest feeding routine.  A few minutes later she returned but again wasn’t happy about my presence.  So I backed off even more.  Having finally gotten the distance right, and the kingfisher accepting the fact that I was not a threat, she started to bring food to the chicks every ten minutes of so.  The first item on the menu was a cicada, and after that it was all skinks.  Long skinny ones, kinky tailed ones, fat belly ones. I was amazed at how many she was bringing to feed the youngsters.  I also had some interesting conversations with some of the tourists walking by.  One women was really interested in what I was doing and the kingfisher flew in while she was with me.  She didn’t understand much of what I was saying and I only caught a bit of what she said.  She was speaking French! Regardless we managed to understand the main gist of the conversation.