Another glorious Kingfisher and this time a female.

I had a great encounter with a female Kingfisher this morning, making all my effort and planning well worthwhile. Way back before Christmas I had planned to photograph the Dunlin and Grey Plover that perch in a very photogenic place at Turf on the River Exe. This is where the Exeter Ship Canal joins the river. At this spot there has to be a combination of events to give a good chance of a photo. First of all, the tide must be high during the daytime, this is when the wading birds will be roosting and using some old stumps that stand proud of the water (see link below.) The weather needs to be good with some sunshine ideally and the most important thing is the presence of something to photograph….a bird or two. Today all the elements were in place with the exception of the Grey Plover, they didnt show for some reason. My strategy is to tuck myself in to a hole overlooking the stumps and then cover myself with cam netting. I wasn't entirely sure that this was working until firstly, a Redshank flew in just beneath me and then, like the holy grail, the female Kingfisher that I had seen yesterday, landed right on the stump that I hoped the Plovers would use. In fact if you look at the link below, you can see that the plover is on the very same stump as the Kingfisher. This was a great encounter and all the more interesting because just before Christmas (25 days ago), I had photographed a male here, see the link below also. It seems as though this pair have started to associate with each other and as breeding season approaches, it would be good to actually see the two together.

As I sat there stuffed in to this little hole in the ground for more than 2 hours in 2 or 3 degrees, even though I was getting stiffer, colder and more cramped, I reminded myself of how much I prefer this kind of photography. In the last week I have photographed Penduline Tit and Snow Bunting, both species that presented very little challenge really, they were just there and in the case of the Penduline, you needed to be lucky and be there when they were. Both species were very confiding and on show for anyone with a camera to snap away at, whereas, with this kind of photography, you need to use some kind of guile, planning and a lot of effort and it is frankly, far, far more rewarding. As you can see….it was quite windy as well.