It has taken what seems to have been hundreds of hours down at the riverside, but eventually I have succeeded in achieving my second objective, an image of the Kingfisher with its catch! I was onsite again at first light on Saturday morning, I set up at my "new location" on the bend but after two hours it was a fruitless exercise with only one fly past.
I reluctantly decided to re-locate back to the original area where I'd had some relative success. After my re-position the bird showed after a wait of 1 minute and sixteen seconds, I know the exact time because "saddo" here set his stopwatch to see how long the wait would be? What made matters even more rewarding was it landed on one of the perches that I'd erected during an earlier visit.
Initially the Kingfisher just sat there on my perch watching the world go by, but then it was flushed as a Sparrowhawk sped by in pursuit of one of the Green Sandpipers (there's three of them here now). The Sandpiper displayed far too much agility as it evaded the pursuing Sparrowhawk with ease.
I took the opportunity when the Sparrowhawk flew through to move the Landrover slightly, I wanted to get into a position where I was looking along the Kingfisher perch rather than across it. It wasn't long before the Kingfisher was spotted again just down the river, it was perched up on a bank side bush and from here it made a successful dive into the water and emerged with a catch. Then rather than fly back to bush where it had come from it opted to land on my perch, yeeeessssss!!!
Needless to say my camera went into overdrive as I rattled off a sequence of 40 images whilst the Kingfisher bashed the poor little fish (a Minnow I think?) against the branch. But because of the low light my shutter speeds of 1/400th were too low to capture the action shots. Sadly the majority of these images had too much motion blur and are not usable, example below.
Only two more objectives to go before this "mini project" will come to a conclusion, a flight shot and a pair of Kingfishers together, mmmmm there could still be a long while to go?
Thanks for stopping by,
catch up soon.........
Fantastic images, the pose on the top image is brilliant and I really like the fish smacking action image too. I think the motion blur gives a sense to what the bird is actually doing. As for two together and flight shot, well you got the fish and a credible draw today so you've used up your luck this weekend lol
ReplyDeleteYes the blurred image does give a sense of what was happening Doug, I am glad you pointed it out and that I included it in the post, cheers mate!
DeleteGreat images again mate, and agree with Douglas the first image is stunning..............
ReplyDeleteThank you kind sir!
DeleteI've run out of superlatives again, Paul !! You keep knocking down those wickets big-style (not just a fish, but a bl**dy big one too!), and I'm looking forward to your next innings with mutiple birds! Wishing you the very best of luck!!
ReplyDeleteSaw two kings at Ouse Washes some years back, facing opposite ways
DeleteRichard I think my project will need to extend into the breeding season of next spring before I can have any chance of attaining an image of two birds together, but you never know? It won't be for the lack of trying!
DeleteMust have been a great sight to witness "Realgoneguy", I am still waiting for that experience.
DeleteI love Kingfishers,I've spent many an hour sitting waiting for the opportunity for a good shot,but never to these standards.
ReplyDeleteThese are without a doubt,the best images I've seen for a long time.
So for me,it's back to the drawing board.
John.
Hi John, I too now love Kingfishers, every spare moment I have is spent down by the river, they are very addictive!! Many thanks for your comments, so complementary!
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