M UNCHING a hot Warren's pasty on a cold day by the river Yeo was a treat made all the more so by a fluffed up friendly robin who enjoyed sharing. It sang me its little song as I scattered some crumbs which it ate with rapid pecks then it flew up into dense ivy shelter on a nearby tree.

Raindrop splashes came up stream before me then hit with that friendly pattering which North Devon seems to get its share of, which I personally enjoy. Earlier I'd been watching a kingfisher perched preening in a rubber tyre hung over the stone wall of Rolle's Quay and now I was upriver close to Derby Weir in kingfisher breeding country, which features in my books, "Old Red" and "Five Owls".

Male kingfishers usually begin chasing their mates about in February and may then be heard to sing with a lovely whistling trill, quite different to the highly pitched "peep" they utter in flight as they speed by us. The male will also whistle as he brings fish to the nest to feed his mate while she's busy laying eggs.

The nest is a gently upward rising tunnel hacked by both adults from the river bank, with a nest chamber at the inner end which holds eggs and young. I have known kingfishers nest in sand martin holes on the Torridge river but they usually make their own tunnels.

It is not unusual to see a kingfisher fly high amongst and above tall trees in spring and summer and I once saw one do so, to perch briefly on an oak which had die-back in the crown, near Umberleigh on the Taw river, a lovely bit of country well worth a visit.

Though plumage is the same in both sexes, adult male kingfishers have an all black bill, whereas the adult female has orange on the lower mandible. Eggs are white and usually five to seven are laid. Both adults incubate for about 19 to 20 days, with fledging taking 23 to 27 days.

Both adults feed the young and there's usually two broods, so a long breeding season from March into September is the norm. Nest holes may be used twice in the same season and in successive years and the same locality is favoured for many years to become "kingfisher country" to us locals. I have known them breed down a well near Knowle and in a hole in a stone wall near RHS Rosemoor.

The kingfisher then, Alcedo atthis, Alcedo being Latin for the kingfisher, and atthis, Athenian, the bird widespread in Europe including the British Isles, southern Asia, Africa, the Orient including India, Malaysia, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.

Trevor Beer will answer your natural history & countryside questions.

Drop him a line at 38 Park Avenue, Barnstaple, EX31 2ES