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Good to have had a little time earlier in the week to be out and about (between the showers) and caught up with our 2nd brood of Kingfisher - three young males.
The Kingfishers fledged sometime between last Wednesday and Friday, and there`s always a chance that there might be another one, possibly a female) that hasn`t been seen yet. While I was there, a female bird from the 1st brood - that fledged on 20th May - put in a distant appearance, so currently there are a few birds around. They will soon be exploring new fishing areas, and by October would have dispersed onto a wider area of the reserve.
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I hope to check out my more local Kingfisher family soon to see if they have been successful this year. On previous years, including last year, loose dogs have made both Kingfisher and Dipper adults abandon their nests during the breeding season, and the broods have failed. This happened to Dipper the previous year too.
The Trosserch Woods / Allt side of the River Morlais has a number signs by the landowners asking for dogs to be kept on leads at all times, which only some comply with but most unfortunately don`t. I had to endure three loose dogs having a go at me last summer while all three `owners` didn`t care nor apologised. The village park, that allows dog owners to exercise their dogs, is only a few minutes away, so I do wonder why people choose to ignore
Back on the WWT Reserve the Kingfisher are safe from dogs, but unfortunately can get disturbed by people that go into restricted roped-off areas. This happened last weekend again when I was doing some monitoring, and , yes, it can and sometimes does affect whether birds will carrying on in their breeding territories.
Here`s hoping all of the five known new Kingfisher on the Reserve, plus those that have bred behind the main grounds, will do well and find areas of their own soon. Good luck to them.