Without a doubt, Kingfisher is one of my favourite birds. Lindsay and I used to see quite a few when we had our small cruiser based on the canals and I got some photos that were quite pleasing at the time, although they fall well short of what I would be happy with these days.
It's a few years now since we sold the boat, and my subsequent sightings of Kingfisher have been infrequent, to say the least, and resulted in very distant 'record' shots, blue blurs or, more usually, nothing at all! I was, therefore, over the moon to find myself looking at Kingfishers in a local location.
The first bird to appear was a male. He performed beautifully, giving the opportunity for a wide variety of shots including intimate close-up portraits. Fortunately, for this location, the sun was not shining, but it was relatively bright.
I make no apologies for the number of images in this post. This session was, and I'm confident will remain, my avian highlight of the year - even outstripping the juvenile Long-eared Owl encounter in Scotland and the Hoopoe in Loughborough!
All the images below are in strictly chronological order, which I hope will help to convey some of the action.
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| Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) (male) - Leicestershire |
The flight photos are a bit shabby as I was set up for stills. After this, the male flew off down to the brook, but I only had to wait six minutes before the female arrived. She also performed quite well but spent most of her time fishing from a stick which was close to the hide. The hide was busy with people and I was not in the best position to maximise the opportunities whilst she was here. Nevertheless I'm delighted with what I did get! The preening session was somewhat of a bonus!
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| Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) (female) - Leicestershire |
All the above took place in a period of two hours and twenty minutes duration. It was one of my most memorable birdwatching sessions ever, and all because of a single species!
I have made three return visits since then and, although the birds did not show for long, the results were a little different and so may appear in a future post.
Thank you for dropping by. I suspect my next post may feature Red Grouse.
