I had a good morning down at the park yesterday. I got up early and decided to go to see if I could get some good in-flight shots of the swallows in flight, how hard can it be?  Trust me, very tricky indeed. These little birds fly at quite a speed and to try to get them in focus as they fly by is a real challenge. What makes it all the more tricky is the distracting backgrounds of reeds which distracts the lens which wants to focus on the background rather than the bird…..the birds are moving at speed and the reeds are static!  I was absolutely thrilled when I saw that, at last I had managed to get my best ever result, this was really satisfying.

As I stood waiting for a good opportunity I suddenly realised that there was a Pied Kingfisher sat in the reeds and posing beautifully. This is a species that I have also seen often before, particularly in Sri Lanka and even here the other day when I actually watched a pair.  They are a common Kingfisher both in Africa and Asia and even in countries that fringe the Mediterranean so it is perhaps a mystery that we don't get them in Europe?  This is probably a species that can't cope with a cold winter climate.  They are very impressive.