Kingfisher

We tend to think of Kingfishers as migrants and winter visitors here on the Algarve coast so we were surprised to see one earlier this week when we were walking around the saltpans here in Tavira. Like so many Kingfishers it wasn't much more than a flash of colour as it flew away across the water.
Yesterday we were a few miles inland by a dried up riverbed and were just as surprised when we saw another one about 50 or more metres away. There was just a very small pool of water remaining that presumably had some food item in it but really it was hardly more than a puddle and not somewhere we expected a Kingfisher.
And then this morning, still in the Algarve, we saw another one. We were at quite a large pond just sitting and watching the birds that were coming to drink and bathe. There were lots of young Goldfinches, several Crested Larks, Red-legged Partridges, a Blackbird or two and then suddenly there was a Kingfisher. And we were ready for it, camera in hand!

It stayed for about 10 minutes during which time it used several different perches and fed on dragonfly larvae and small fish.