It’s that time of year again, the Kingfisher breeding season will soon be here!
I can honestly say I can’t remember a breeding season like last year! One for the books. The loss of two females kept things interesting but the loss of the male ended the season for us, very abruptly.
The return of the established pair from 2022 meant activity started very early in February 2023 with the pair investigating the nest bank. Courtship and breeding activities continued as you would expect with fish passes, mating, incubation, and 1 April came round with a fish pass logged between the pair. However, at some point between 1 and 10 April we realised the female had gone, where? We can only presume, predated or illness, exhaustion, age, we will never know for sure. It appears the male continued with the incubation, but it is unlikely to have been very effective, due to having to leave the eggs for periods while feeding himself and with the added distraction of finding a new female. He was successful and paired up with a new female on 11 April when they were seen at the nest bank and by 14 April the new pair were mating, but activity in original burrow had ceased and the clutch appeared to be abandoned.
So, this new pairing progresses with typical breeding activity and by the end of April there were signs of egg laying, which was confirmed by a changeover reported on 2 May, closely followed by hatching day on 15 May as eggshell was removed from the burrow. With incubation lasting 19-21 days this new pair had got down to business quickly, incubation must have started on 25-27 April. Though, this female also disappeared with our last logged sighting on 21 May! With the young at six days old and the investment made to get this far, the male continued to feed the young on his own and his perseverance paid off with three young fledging on 10 June.
However, leading up to the fledging the year took another twist with the last known sighting of the male on 8 June (we would have expected fledging around 7/8 June in a typical cycle with both parents feeding young). But with the male the sole provider of fish it would have taken longer for the young to fledge and very likely hunger forced them out on 10 June, so fingers crossed they survived those first few perilous days of learning to fish. Also, before disappearing himself, the male had found a third female for the year. The pair were together from 28 May, and mating by 3 June, (though she did not aid in feeding the chicks) so it looked all set for a second brood but without a male on territory and the instinct to breed, the female also left site to find a new male. Resulting in an early end to the year, but an interesting and unusual one. What will 2024 hold?
With drama like this happening at the Kingfisher Hub you can understand why it’s a popular spot with our visitors. To ensure everyone continues to enjoy their experience at the Kingfisher Hub we implemented a successful set of measures for the Kingfisher Hub in 2022, designed to allow fair use and access to all, as well as timed visits during times when it is really busy. The response to these requirements in the last two years has been overwhelmingly positive with good feedback from both our regular Kingfisher viewing community and first-time visitors. We will therefore be implementing them again in 2024.
The measures in place are designed to allow as many people as possible to see and learn about our Kingfishers, and to ensure equal opportunities to all our visitors. As in previous years, we would encourage our Kingfisher viewing community to support each other by making sure everyone can have the time and space they are entitled to, giving up seats after the allowed time restriction, and communicating when Kingfishers were last seen. We are grateful to all of you who have supported and helped to carry out these measures and trust that you will continue to do so as a community this year.
From 1 March 2024, the following will apply until further notice:
Please do:
Please do not:
All visitors must abide by these requirements and the code of conduct displayed or they may be asked to vacate the hub, or in extreme cases will be asked to leave the reserve.
We are also aiming to create a team of volunteers to act as Kingfisher Hub Hosts, to be present at the Hub during the breeding season, providing support and informing visitors about the Kingfishers’ activity, breeding cycle and conservation. If you would be interested in supporting us in this role or any other volunteering opportunity at Rye Meads we will be advertising for volunteers at volunteer.rspb.org.uk once we are back to full strength in the staff team (keep an eye on our @RSPBRyeMeads Facebook and X (Twitter) pages for when these go live. Please note that we are temporarily closed two days a week (Friday and Saturday) while we recruit two new members of staff. Keep an eye on our social media for updates.
We will once again be running a series of VIP kingfisher events through the breeding season offering exclusive out of hours access and use of the low-level photography slots. We time these events to coincide with peak activity from the Kingfishers and therefore can’t predict dates in advance, so keep any eye on our social media and website for dates and booking information.
We look forward to seeing you in the 2024 season, fingers crossed for plenty of action!