Photographing Kingfishers

Recently I have spent a considerable amount of time sat in hides waiting for kingfishers to show.I have been to well known locations at Martin Mere and Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserves.The kingfisher suffered in the severe winters we had a few years ago but does now  seem to have recovered from the population crash.Let's hope this continues and this enigmatic bird continues to delight all who see it.

It can be a long wait at times for a kingfisher to show and there is no guarantee that one will  turn up.Yesterday for example I spent four hours in the Rufford Hide at Mere Sands Wood but the kingfisher didn't show whilst I was there.The previous day I only waited about an hour and a half.Eventually one did arrive but the poor weather with heavy rain meant the images obtained were not of the best.The colours of a kingfisher seem to change with the available light and one never seems satisfied with the results.

I have shown above some of my recent efforts at kingfisher photography.The first series were taken at Martin Mere from the Ron Barker hide,a well known location for photographers. They are not too bad and were taken on a bright day with calm conditions.The second series from Mere Sands Wood were taken on a very wet afternoon but I was reasonably pleased with the shots of the bird posing on the reed stems.

All in all not too bad but I will be continually striving for that perfect shot. Hope you enjoy what I have posted and I will be back soon with more wildlife images. The recent change in the weather conditions with some much needed and welcome heavy rain coinciding with some high tides should result in salmon running the rivers. I hope to capture the fish leaping the falls on some of our northern rivers this month and will of course post the results on my blog. Thanks for looking in.