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!!!

Sunday 20 March 2016

At long last!

Sometimes, and I do mean sometimes, a long term plan does come to fruition..........

For several years now whilst monitoring the Little Owls at one of my sites I do occasionally see a pair of Kingfishers. Mostly the sightings are restricted to just a blue blur as they blast up and down the river, however they do sometimes rest up on a bank side perch and offer some better views, for a few fleeting seconds!  This noted behaviour tempted me last year into to trying for some perched up images, there was a lot of time invested with mixed results initially. But in time I did manage to slowly gain better views and consequently improved images of both the male, female and juvenile Kingfishers.

But was I content?.........No I wasn't! Don't get me wrong, I was more than satisfied with the slow but sure improvements with the images that I was attaining, but the one image that I'd got in my minds eye that had so far eluded me was one with both the male and female Kingfishers together. So you can probably imagine my smugness when this morning I not only managed an image of the pair of them together and in focus, I actually superseded my own expectations and nailed a few images of them mating!!


It was an excellent and very productive early morning visit with great views of Kingfisher (obviously), Little Egret, Green Sandpiper, Grey Wagtail and Water Rail!! I now have over 400 more images to go through from this morning before I can even think of publishing another post on here, watch this space!

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

19 comments:

  1. Well done Paul. That image should win a prize!

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  2. an eyecatcher one gets very rarely seen. Definitely worth a price
    greetings Frank

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  3. Magazine material, what a superb image mate..........

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  4. Nailed it, the pair of you lol. I love the fact both birds are sharp and tons of detail but also the plain uncluttered background. A cracker

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    1. It had been a while in the making Doug, cheers!

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  5. Hi Paul You certainly nailed this one, best images yet seen of kingfishers, absolutely brilliant.
    Regards John

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  6. High level of photography .. greetings

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  7. Gets my vote for photo of the year, Paul. As far as I'm concerned it's perfect in every respect. Congratulations!!

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    Replies
    1. Oooooooh that's a big appraisal Richard, may thanks though!

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