Kingfisher fledging time River Camel, Cornwall 29th July 2016

A new fledgling from today (left) is attacked by an older fledgling from a previous brood

Well the kingfishers that I'd been watching successfully fledged 4 youngsters this morning and it was great to see them flitting around the riverbank often struggling to land on branches and roots.

They lack the colour of their parents but that will come in a few days.

Almost immediately there was aggression from 2 birds that I thought were their parents but now I can see that they are also juveniles but from an earlier brood, maybe 2 months old.

It's possible to age them from the colour of their feet, the newly fledged ones have brown feet, the ones from the first brood only show the brown on the top of their feet and the adults have bright orange feet.

An aggressive posture from a fist brood male.

Adult male brings a fish for a new fledgling.

Just hours out of the nest these 2 lack the colour of the adults.

A whole new world to explore.

Kingfishers, River Camel, Cornwall 26th July 2016.

That's what you call a meal for a hungry youngster!

Huge fish being taken to the nest by the male kingfisher.

He got so slimy and messy that he dunked into the water to clean himself no less than 22 times!

This is a second brood so I'm hoping that their population will expand this summer as , keeping fingers crossed, no floods yet this summer!


Here's the short piece of video I took of him bathing after taking that huge fish to the nest.....

38 ft Sperm whale dies on Cornish beach 11.7.16

This sad sight is the sperm whale after the experts have taken their samples in order to ascertain why this amazing animal beached here at Perranporth in Cornwall.

It was still alive when it beached 2 days ago but being out of the water made it virtually impossible to survive as the weight of its body was no longer supported by the water.

I've tried to be as sensitive as I can with the photos and am still in awe of this huge mammal but can also see why people are still flocking to catch a glimpse of such a rare event.