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.