18th October, A powercut and a kingfisher!

Late this morning there was an unexpected power cut at work, telephone calls via private mobiles meant we could report the fault, reasonable daylight presented the opportunity for tidying desks and getting the filing up to date.

An early afternoon call revealed that a fix was not likely for a few hours, I chose to leave early with the option of making my time up at a later date. An opportunity to check the kingfisher site was on my mind, the light had dulled so sharp photographs seemed unlikely but the chance to study this beautiful bird again could not be spurned.

Soon after leaving the car I had one shot safely in the camera!

The little beauty then flew off as usual, I followed slowly. The next half an hour followed the pattern of Saturday, sight then flight, the causes were the same...boats, bikes and dog walkers, I remained patient.

Another good look came soon enough, I just could not get the sharp focus I wanted...

It then became clear that there were two kingfishers at large, the one I was tracking flew past a gate...on the gate was a kingfisher!!

The one on the gate took off only to land on a lower rail, I attempted a flight shot with a laughable result, practice needed!

I stood at a distance at which I know does not alarm them and waited until it became comfortable with my presence, moving ever so slowly I inched closer.

This is obviously cropped heavily and the sharpness suffers...another version -

This one is cropped slightly, even with a 35 x optical zoom ( equivalent to an 840mm lens) with built in stabilisation device, getting a really close shot is oh so difficult.

Here to end is the original photograph, completely untouched to demonstrate the scale of difficulty, demonstrating the quickening of the pulse, the adrenalin rush and the satisfaction when one achieves a half decent kingfisher shot I will leave until I find the words:-)

Thanks for taking a look:-))