Catching the King!

I spent an hour or so yesterday afternoon at Grove Ferry in the sunshine where I thought I would spend some time in the Feast hide to see if the Kingfisher would show. Despite the Kingfisher being seen from the hide, it spent all of its time fishing from the far side of the pool and never ventured near enough for any photos, still nice to observe though and pick up some more habits on this bird. I don't think I have ever put so many hours in for a species and with hundreds of shots taken this year already of them, it seems to be getting a challenge to get better ones. Despite spending hours at a time waiting, this time soon disappears when you hear the piercing call coming down the channel and then suddenly that empty post you have been staring at for hours suddenly has one of the most beautiful birds this country has to offer on it. During August the Kingfishers would stay for a while and seemed to get used to the cameras going off but of late, they seem very nervous and only stay for a brief time. Despite the long wait often, I keep going back for more and still look to get the perfect shot of this species, a nice sharp hovering pose will do or one just in the process of diving, I can dream I suppose. One of my favourite shots this year is posted below and hopefully this will be the first of many more shots to come in the next few months. 

Kingfisher