Alone with Kingfishers.

The title says it all, this year, 2020 has been hard to get access to many of the hides, but when a chance came up to visit a private hide and have it to myself for the day, I jumped at it.

For me it is only a 35 minute drive from my home in Northamptonshire across the border into Lincolnshire - Easy.


A not to early start, as I had to meet the owner on site at 7.15am, Upon arrival, I was shown around the site, with the usual exchange of the paper vouchers, I was left to myself, just being asked to lock up when I left, and give the owner a text just to let him know - great....

So, a two camera set up was employed, a 1DX MKII with a 300mm F4 lens + a 1.4 extender, the was used in the main for the majority of shots, and also video.  A 7D MKII was used with a 70/200mm F4 on a remote trigger, pre focused on a likely looking perch. 

My first visit of the day was within 15 minutes of getting set up, this hungry female put in an appearance, and caught a fish on her dive, could this be how the day was going to progress? - only time would tell.............

The action carried on quite steadily through the morning, with visits from both male and female birds, also, at one point, a rogue male put in an appearance, this was swiftly dealt with by the resident male. 




Around early afternoon, a quiet period was had, time for a chance to ea myself - not fish!

Around 2pm the action restarted in earnest, with constant visits from the birds, the shot below of the male perched up on the log with its reflection, for me was my "highlight" shot of the whole day.

 

I carried on shooting until around 7pm, it got to the point, how many shots can one take, the weather had been perfect, the light had been perfect, being on site on my own had been perfect, and of course the stars of the show, had also been perfect.

I thought I would leave you with one small video clip from the number taken on the day. 

 



                                                                                                               

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