This is my "Photo of the week" for July 29th 2010 and also Birdguides "Photo of the Week"
I visited my hide at around 9 on this particular morning and quickly noticed a Kingfisher "flash" past the hide. When I looked out, there was not one, but two birds perched about 2 feet apart on a low perch. They quickly moved to a perch opposite and just appeared to sit, although one would always be on a higher branch than the other but again, quite closely together. After a while there was a display of beak pointing towards each other but nothing more. Eventually after almost two hours they came together in a violent fight, tumbling in to the water where they rolled around for about 30 seconds. As you can see, the more dominant bird looks like it is about to drown the other.

Birdguides citation:
Common Kingfishers are such good photographic subjects that they look great in any pose, allowing stunning images to be captured even from brief encounters. However, Devon-based bird photographer Charlie Fleming shows that spending longer with these birds can really pay dividends. Putting in many hours in his hide over the last couple of weeks, Charlie has been able to capture a wide range of shots of his local Kingfishers. As reward for his commitment, though, he has now managed to witness a rarely seen occurrence as two female birds engaged in a vicious fight. Keeping his nerve as the event unfolded, Charlie recorded the behaviours in detail. Our pick of the sequence freezes the action as the birds ended up rolling around in the brook, with one bird trying to drown the other. This superb action shot sums up the event that Charlie described as the best wildlife-watching session of his life.