It has been a birding day today

The first thing that greeted me on the sand this morning was a crow attacking a dead rat but later as I sat having a coconut lassi I watched this kingfisher as he dived but failed to catch any fish 5 times. After some severe preening he departed for better hunting grounds. He would have been amply rewarded had he visited the beach this morning. The fishermen brought in such a heavy net it took a long time to pull in but sadly although there were plenty of fish of small sizes there were also purple jellyfish again and many pink sloppy ones about 4 foot in diameter with miles of trailing slimy tentacles which hampered the fishermen in claiming their booty. The birds knew there would be pickings and spiralled in - all sorts of raptors and egrets, herons and crows. The jelly fish had swallowed fish and these had to be disinterred before they were thrown out but some little fish escaped as the net was too heavy to bring above the tide line and the birds swooped and stole as often as they could. The locals did too and one old man was put to guard the boxes of fish so the birds, or locals, didn't have a go at those.

See the huge jellyfish here