Kingfisher and crab

It has been a grey, wet, miserable day. I got tired of being cooped up inside so between showers this afternoon I took a short walk at the estuary to clear the cobwebs.

Not far along the track I spotted this kingfisher high in a tree. It looked like it had a mouthful of twigs or lichen and I wondered if it was doing repairs or building a new nest. I walked round and around the  tree, taking photographs at every step expecting it to fly off at any minute. However, it out lasted me and was still sitting there with its mouthful when I decided to move on.

I laughed when I got the photo uploaded to the laptop. The mouthful of twigs or lichen turned out to be a large long legged crab. Now I am wondering why kingfisher was just sitting there with the crab. Was it too early for his dinner? Was it too big to swallow? Perhaps he was saving it  to woo a lady. Normally, crabs are tossed down the hatch very quickly and the bird is off again smartly to look for more.