Kingfishers are startlingly beautiful! They are also tiny, elusive and quite a rare site, which makes seeing one an absolute privilege! That said, I've seen two this week! I saw the first at Brandon Marsh on Tuesday, (1 August) at about 11.45am. Here she is:

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I say 'she' quite deliberately because I've checked on google (as you do). She's definitely female because she has an orange streak on the bottom of her beak - known as her lipstick. You can see it if you look carefully at the underside of her beak.

I was so captivated by her beauty that I went back to the same spot today, (Saturday 5 August) at about the same time. Lo and behold I saw another kingfisher. I assumed it was the same one until I got home and downloaded the images onto my computer and saw that it was a quite different bird! Here he is:

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The obvious difference is that he is quite a different colour. Now, according to google, the male and the female are virtually identical - well these two certainly aren't! Maybe one is a juvenile? (The female is certainly smaller which might mean she's younger).

Anyway, I found it fascinating - is it just me?

Here's a few more images taken on the two days - I hope you like them. If you do, why not pop along to Brandon Marsh to see if you can see a live one? If you do, take refreshments and be prepared to wait. I don't mind that, I find it very peaceful - I think it does you good to sit quietly and just 'be' every once in a while - I think its called mindfulness.

Incidentally, yes, it was pouring with rain today - that is rain that you can see on the images. Fortunately, I was very cosy in the bird hide.

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Leisure