Kingfisher goings on

Yesterday at Rye Meads it was assumed that the kingfisher's third brood had hatched, but today there were some strange goings on. Those in the hide were saying there was an intruding male and the other male was spending all its time seeing it off and taking no food into the nest hole. Certainly there was a lot of flying around from two birds, but the one that seemed to be "defending" the territory seemed to me to be a female (reddish lower mandible).

In that this is a back-blip I can tell you that according to the Rye Meads site it was a male & female today, then tomorrow (can I blip what happened tomorrow?) there were two females and a male performing the same way. Unfortunately it means that the third brood failed. In that broods one and two were by one pairing and then the female was killed, brood three was with a new and possibly inexperienced female, hopefully she'll do better next year.

Today's photo is of the Female Kingfisher that was "defending" the territory as is RCBs.