2013 came in with great expectations, 3 nest sites to watch if the Kingfishers had made it through the hard winter, late march and the first searches brings bad news, at Roy’s Nest site  the banking has completely collapsed, with no other suitable banks nearby the birds have moved away. Better news comes a few days later from the first Nest I found (nest 1) were a bird has been seen perched close to the nest. A couple of weeks later, mid April and everything is in full swing, at nest site 1 the birds are seen mating while at the newest nest site (nest 2)  the male is seen with soil on his beak outside the nest hole indicating he’s been doing a bit of spring cleaning. Checks at the end of April show everything is still going well with birds seen switching incubation duties at both sites, we also have a new Observer, Richard had spotted the young Kingfishers near nest 2 the previous summer but hadn’t been able to locate the nest site due to the height of the vegetation, to his credit he  had been keeping a watch out for the adults returning in the spring, eventually following their movements and finding the nest for himself. He’s as obsessed as the rest of us. On the 3rd of May the male is seen nearby with a small fish, it could just be coincidence but the eggs are probably due for hatching. Two days later and its confirmed they’re definitely feeding young, I leave them alone for the time being to get on with it and work out the expected fledging date, Richard keeps an eye on them and sends me updates, On the 13th I get some photo’s from Richard as I look at his photos one of them catch my eye, it’s the male sat bolt upright, feathers tight and beak pointing upwards, I double check David Boag’s book and it confirms my suspicions, it’s a threat, an aggressive stance aimed at warning another Kingfisher. The following morning I get down to the area early and hide. I don’t have to wait long before I see two Kingfishers in pursuit, my suspicions are confirmed, there’s another male in the area and what’s more, when I finally get a good view, its wearing a BTO ring on its right leg, could this be the same bird from last year?  For the next few days the newcomer keeps making appearances, almost goading the resident male to chase him, at first it's hard to understand why he hasn’t taken the opportunity to go into the nest and throw the young out, the only reason we could think is that the female is still brooding and he didn’t want to fight the male preferring instead to try and wear him out instead. The intruder had time on his side, the resident male had to provide food for the young, the female and himself, studies on other predatory birds have shown that adult males can come perilously close to starvation whilst feeding young, could this be the case here, was this the same bird that last year threw the young out of Roy’s nest only to be chased off by the resident male, several days later I visit the area again, the resident male is now having difficulty keeping up in the chase, for the first time since I became  involved in watching Kingfishers I felt  I didn't want to watch any more, I had a feeling of helplessness, there was nothing I could do to intervene, I left the area feeling down, there was a certain sad inevitable outcome
It was nine days before I finally went back to nest 2. I scoped the nest site from behind the distant wall and spotted two birds perched near the nest hole, it was the ringed male and the female, the deed had been done and the victor now stood proud and content with his prize. I left and drove to nest 1 to check it, both parents were busy feeding young here and everything looked fine, we had estimated that this nest was at least a week behind nest 2.
 June 7th and  a drive out to check both nest sites, at nest 2, the closest to home I scope from the wall and immediately spot the male perched near the nest. We assumed the males from successful nests would take time during incubation to recoup their weight and fitness in preparation for the next bout of feeding young. I left and went to check the other nest site.