My 100th post on this blog since I started in August, 2008. No foxes this week, as the family seem to have moved to a larger residence. I spent 5 hours waiting at the den, but to no avail. A closer inspection of the den showed no fresh prints in the wet sand. Some 50 meters further, a new den had been dug, but that too did not look inhabited. I don’t have the time nor the motivation to spend yet another few days to find the new residence, so time to go and look for new subjects. I’m happy with the moments I have been able to share with the foxes, and will definitely go back next year.
Because of all my efforts with the foxes, I completely missed out on the kingfishers. The first brood fledged some five weeks ago. I had good hopes the couple would try for a second (and maybe third) brood. So two weeks ago, I paid a short visit to the site and within minutes, the male came out of the nesting pipe with soil on the bill. Good news: the nest was being cleaned and redecorated for a second brood! I went back this weekend and both the male and female arrived with very small fish in the bill. So the chicks must have hatched recently. I’ll be going back in the next weekends, as the amount of fish needed to feed the chicks will rapidly increase, which means more visits by the parents and more chances for good shots.
As a nice coincidence, the kingfisher features the colors of our national flag. Very appropriate, with the Worldcup having started and the Orange Lions beating the Danish Dynamite with 2-0!
Common Kingfisher male; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4 and 1.4x; 1/200s at F5.6 and ISO 400; Tripod and camo cloth.
