Kingfisher saves the day

I was out ringing yesterday morning with Sorby Breck RG  at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands in Chesterfield. We arrived at 05.15 and set up the usual nets with high expectations of  juvenile birds, especially warblers. Unfortunately, the forecast good weather didn't appear, and neither did the birds, with just 13 individuals caught.

Imagine our surprise, then, when, on one of the final net rounds, we spotted an electric blue rump sticking out of the nets! We all ran towards it shouting, "It's a Kingfisher!!!" - a first for the group at this locality, and a new bird for Stewart. The bird was duly extracted, ringed, aged and sexed (a 3J male, one born this year), and released.

Kingfisher