There are considerable wildlife photograph possibilities all around us but the real issue is how do we get close enough  to our subject to get that good photo. With the Kingfisher and Wagtails it is a simple matter of placing a hide in a likely place and eventually, with considerable patience you will get a result. You can load the odds in your favour as I did with the Kingfisher by learning about your subject and making sure you are in the right place when something happens.  Now, our Buzzard is a different matter entirely.  Birds of prey have amazingly good eyesight and once a Buzzard for example is aware of you, there is no way that you are going to get  near to him.  You need a strategy.  I have started the process of learning his behaviour and eventually I will build a hide to see if I can get near.  I am pretty sure that the main focus of his attention is the presence of Rabbits in his territory.  It is no coincidence that there is a rabbit warren smack in the middle of it.  I plan to "bait" him with a dead rabbit or two and hopefully he will become accustomed to these freebies and not be too concerned with me sat in a hide nearby.  I just need to find a good place to locate the hide, somewhere that will give me good light and away off the dog-walkers track. In the meantime, I got close enough to get this nice action shot today.  He was sat on a fence overlooking the brook and seemed to be happy that I wasn't too much of a threat.  I watched as he seemed to see something in the grass and swooped off his perch to try and get it. While he was down in the grass I made my move and rushed forward to get closer but he was not that easy to fool and flew up and away almost immediately and watched from the safety of a nearby tree. 

A walk up the brook and back towards home  gave me a good view of the Kingfisher and I was relieved to see him again. The water level is dropping quickly and I may be able to resume my Kingfisher watching from the hide by Saturday, I really hope so. I took another photo of the hide today so you can see how much the level as dropped in 24 hours.

Now to some really good news of photographic success. I have mentioned  before about the website Birdguides and their ongoing weekly competitions  for "Photo of the Week". There are around 1000 pictures uploaded each week and many are of an extremely high standard. As I have also said on many occasions it is my aim to win the photo of the week and this week was as near as I have been before because I one of my kingfisher pictures was judged to be amongst the  "notable" and in the running for this prestigious award.  Click on the links to see the amazing standard of the other pictures.

Here is my picture.