A handsome spotted dove by the canal edge

and then this really very handsome striated heron watching the water intently…

He wasn’t the only one! Along the canal’s edge there were at least 3-4 different ones at different points…here we can see the bluish head and rump of the striated heron

the canal was teeming with tilapia fish of all sizes and clearly was the subject of interest for waterbirds and KFs alike…

here a solitary male in breeding colours guarding his circular sand nest

and then this black and white pied wagtail started wading in the water as well

sorry about the ass shot…..pied wagtail

And then my wife yelled out …the Kingfisher is here! And there he was the not so common common KF perched on a most unsightly pile of scaffolding by the canal….

and what was even better was that he’d caught a fish and was trying to move it into a position in which it could be swallowed

almost there…..

and just before it went down the hatch…what a treat to see the Common KF having his sashimi breakfast

moving on, we spotted the ‘resident’ white throated KF perched on the railing, flying back and forth catching fish

White throated KF

and he even flew over to our side of the canal and perched just 10 feet from us..

A zebra dove also kept an eye on us…

and finally, there were a group of little egrets on a little mudbank in the canal.