A sequence of a fishing Kingfisher as it happened this morning.

They say that nothing is ever handed to you on a plate and I would agree with that. Having realised that I am on the verge of getting the best Kingfisher photographs that I have taken I am really trying hard to achieve my ambition of photographing a Kingfisher emerging from and entering the water.
Take today for example. When I woke this morning I was chuffed to see the sun shining brightly and I knew it was going to be a good day for fast photography. Before 8 I was in the hide with the camera sitting on a tripod and armed with the remote wireless shutter release. I sat waiting, the light was perfect but the only thing missing was a Kingfisher. To cut the story short, It wasn’t until after 1300 hours that it turned up. I did come home for almost an hour between 10 and 11 though. I was just about to come home again when I became aware that their was a bird on the hide right above my head. It had to be a Kingfisher, what else could it be, then suddenly there it was after 5 hours waiting, on the usual perch. When it dived in I pressed the wireless trigger and captured some images. Of course I had no idea if I had been successful, the camera being 10 feet away. But when I saw the Kingfisher back on the perch with a fish I knew that I must have captured something. The bird eventually departed, or thats what I thought and I climbed out of the hide to check my photos. This was a bad move the Kingfisher was just feet away on another perch and I had disturbed it. Never mind though because when I eventually left 15 minutes later, there it was undisturbed on a nearby perch upstream. I couldn’t wait to check my pictures but disappointingly, the shutter speed had only been 1/650 of a second, nowhere near quick enough to capture the action sharply. Still it gives me a boost because when I have perfect light and a bird I know its going to be successful.