Improving habitat for kingfishers

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Dave
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I am thinking that you guys that go looking for kingfishers and the like may also know a fair bit about their habitat.

At the end of my garden runs a small stream that separates us from a nature reserve at the back of our property. Even though it only ever runs a couple of inches deep during summer it still used to be full of life, lots of small fish and mice and shrews on the banks and with that kingfishers and herons were a fairly frequent visitor.

However, last year the council turned up with an excavator and cleared the ditch I expect to negate the risk of flooding but in doing so they removed every last piece of vegetation from the banks. Last summer with just bare ground bindweed and the like took over and over winter that died off falling into the stream restricting the flow and slowly rotting. Although some reeds now grown back the stream has been effectively dead and starting to smell.

I have gotten in there myself last week and cut back all the bind weed leaving the aquatic plants behind so hopefully it wound get so overgrown again and dredged out all the dead plant matter and thick algae that had accumulated from my section plus a little way up and down from my property.
The stream is now back to running clear like it previously did. Is there anything else that is reasonable to encourage it to return to it previous stat or is it just a case of waiting and hoping?
 
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