Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Tuesday 21 October 2014

What the camera saw.......

Since the finding of my second Kingfisher site just down the road from where I live my first site has almost been ignored. It wasn't a difficult decision really when you compare the amount of time invested (sitting waiting in the Landie) verses the rewards (Kingfisher sightings). In addition to the more frequent sightings the fact that the light direction at the second site is far more favorable for photography and also the distance involved in driving is half a mile compared to five miles, yes a major consideration when the Landie only does 12 miles to the gallon!

At my second site I was around 90% sure that I was seeing two different Kingfishers, both juvenile hen birds? After reviewing loads of images I noticed that one bird had a very pale lower breast feathers, a smaller orange patch on the lower mandible and slightly different light blue markings on its back. There was obviously always an element of doubt in my mind but these thoughts were finally confirmed when this next sequence of images were obtained. 

I was busily taking images of a Kingfisher on a nearby perch, as I was watching it through the camera viewfinder it started acting very strange indeed. It crouched low on the branch, opened its wings and beak and gestured aggressively up stream whilst calling. 



Needless to say I hadn't witnessed this kind of behavior before so I just kept rattling off the images. Within fractions of a second the Kingfisher disappeared out of my view finer and off down the river. It was this lapse in the action that gave me an opportunity to review the images I'd just captured. What greeted me in one single frame was a total shock........two birds!! 

Sadly I wasn't prepared for this incredibly fast piece of action and my camera settings at the time were not able to freeze the action without the motion blur and nor was I able to have them both properly in focus, dooough!! 

But I do think the image is just about usable so I thought I'd share.......


However, what it has done for me is to be able to confirm 100% that indeed there are two birds present along this stretch of the river and yes they are both hen birds. It has also enabled me to achieve another one of my goals of an image of two birds together and in flight, well sort of?

Just a quick post

Catch up again soon..........

11 comments:

  1. To get two Kingfishers having a dispute is very good work indeed. The flight shot can't be to far behind now. Well done

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    1. Getting these two together was a complete fluke Doug, but I'll take it!

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  2. Wow, wow wow !!!!!! I thought that the first two were special enough, but that last one is absolutely stunning and a bit of motion blur doesn't detract from the end result - probably the opposite! Superb stuff, Paul.

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  3. I agree with Richard the image of the two birds works really well - cracking shot.

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  4. Thats a superb image of the two birds mate!!

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  5. For weeks I sit at the pond and wait for the perfect picture of kingfisher, a few shots I got. But your pictures you show us beat all quite great shots
    regards Frank

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    1. I am sure they will show really well for you very soon Frank, best of luck and thanks for dropping by.

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  6. Thanks a lot brother for the bunch of useful information, I am truly impressed!! Make money vegas

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