Dont laugh! My first kingfisher shot

u8myufo

u8myufo

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After a neighbour informed me on Sunday she had spotted a Kingfisher whilst out with her dog, I decided to check it out briefly that evening, about 15min in total. In that time I had four sightings. On the third sighting it had stopped on a small root which was sticking out of a 6ft diameter main root of a fallen tree. After a brief rest it then jumped up inside of a crevice within the root, great I thought. With kit packed food and flasks I headed off about 7.30 this morning. Not wanting to go anywhere near what was a potential nest site I stayed about 100 yards or so up stream of it. After walking up and down that stretch a couple of times, I chose my spot near some probable perches. One was a small piece of rock jetting out from the bank, that was about 18ft or so away. I strung the camouflage netting around three sturdy saplings which were growing halfway down the small bank to the waters edge, they were spread out in almost a wigwam fashion which gave me almost 360 cover from the water. A fourth sapling growing there and was nearly in the middle, this was handy as it gave me somewhere to sit between Ouch!! :nuts: Just in front of me about 8ft away was a fallen branch about 7 inches diameter and about a foot below my eye level, this spanned the whole width of the stream, this now gave me two possible chances of a decent shot. After setting up the camera and nestling down in amongst the wild garlic, I proceeded to munch on a cheese sandwich and wait, and wait, and wait. The sun is shining, trout were jumping, I must have took about 50 shots just checking different settings and passing the time, occasionally I would just lean my head back, just enough so as to see if anything was heading up or down stream. Its now 17.00 hours and I have lost the feeling completely fom my groin down, almost feels as if that sapling had been growing from my body for years:cautious::cautious: not a Kingfisher in sight :shake::shake: So its time to pack up and head home :wave:
It dawned on me after that maybe the water which was not a torrent but probably a bit more murky than usual was the cause, and that they had gone further downstream to a clearer spot. I think I have failed in my first field craft test i should have noted the water quality earlier :amstupid::amstupid: oh well back there again soon, heres the one that got away.


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Brilliant story - hope you got all the feeling back and lovely shot you got there :LOL:
 
Great story, thanks for sharing! I love hearing about how people went about (or in this case...didn't :LOL:) getting their shots :)

Kingfishers tend to prefer slower moving water, as it enables them to be more accurate diving as the fish will move less...and of course, clearer water probably helps! It might be worth trying the opposite side of the potential nest site, there might be a more suitable patch there!

Well done on trying though! Keep up the good work :D
 
I spent four hours watching Kingfishers today, with not one decent shot............:bang:

However, a very pleasant lady and her lab, sat near me just as one flashed by, she said "Did you see that woodpecker with the red bum?"......we spent a good hour talking and I hope I enlightened a very enthusiastic but slightly ill informed Lady.I`m sure we shall sit in the same spot again, she offered to bring sarnies.............(y)
 
fracster said:
I spent four hours watching Kingfishers today, with not one decent shot............:bang:

However, a very pleasant lady and her lab, sat near me just as one flashed by, she said "Did you see that woodpecker with the red bum?"......we spent a good hour talking and I hope I enlightened a very enthusiastic but slightly ill informed Lady.I`m sure we shall sit in the same spot again, she offered to bring sarnies.............(y)
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:LOL::LOL:

Sarnies eh? Definitely worth another attempt :D
 
Cheers all, I totally enjoy it, sitting doing nothing. I might take a bit of line and a hook next time and have myself a trout dinner. :woot::woot: Anyone got any idea what is roughly the minimum depth of water a Kingfisher will dive into?
 
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u8myufo said:
Cheers all, I totally enjoy it, sitting doing nothing. I might take a bit of line and a hook next time and have myself a trout dinner. :woot::woot: Anyone got any idea what roughly the minimum depth of water a Kingfisher will dive into?
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No facts or figures to hand, but plenty of natural history videos in my head...they always seem to show them between 2ish - 6ish inches down.
 
Keep your eyes peeled and you will see allsorts of other stuff............(y)

Kingfishers will dive where they see fish,in my experience, the lower the stream/river and the clearer it is, the lower they will dive.Not science, just my experience of having watched them for a while.

I have never watched them on stillwater, so that may be a different scenario.
 
u8myufo said:
Cheers all, I totally enjoy it, sitting doing nothing. I might take a bit of line and a hook next time and have myself a trout dinner. :woot::woot: Anyone got any idea what is roughly the minimum depth of water a Kingfisher will dive into?
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The one I snapped and have observed could not have been much over 450mm or 18", it was well close to the bank, I was surprised how shallow it was.
 
Thanks for all the usefull advise, I shall head on down stream next time. I walked about a mile this winter just following the stream so I do know of some clear calmer sections and they are about 3-4 hundred yards away, question #2 are they territorial birds? On a stretch of water could there be two nest sites? If so, what kind of distance would seperate them? If there was only one nest in the area, how far would there hunting ground stretch to? If they had a spot say 50yrds downstream where they know they can have fish, would they bother to travel beyond that point?

Thanks again (y)
 
u8myufo said:
Thanks for all the usefull advise, I shall head on down stream next time. I walked about a mile this winter just following the stream so I do know of some clear calmer sections and they are about 3-4 hundred yards away, question #2 are they territorial birds? On a stretch of water could there be two nest sites? If so, what kind of distance would seperate them? If there was only one nest in the area, how far would there hunting ground stretch to? If they had a spot say 50yrds downstream where they know they can have fish, would they bother to travel beyond that point?

Thanks again (y)
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They are territorial, and there was a time I knew the figure...5km stretches rings a bell! Might be wrong though!

I should imagine during nesting season when they are fishing constantly, they will use closer sources as to minimize energy expenditure...although it could work on the flip side and perhaps they would conserve closer sources for when they tire? :shrug:
 
purpleclouds said:
They are territorial, and there was a time I knew the figure...5km stretches rings a bell! Might be wrong though!

I should imagine during nesting season when they are fishing constantly, they will use closer sources as to minimize energy expenditure...although it could work on the flip side and perhaps they would conserve closer sources for when they tire? :shrug:
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Cheers Big Ears!! (y)
 
Hi lovely story ay least you saw the kingfisher .
I hope you have more luck when you go back
Pete
 
Great story and I hope you'll keep us informed with following exploits :clap:
 
Thanks for sharing the story , can,t wait for episode two , good luck next time .
 
Great tale of woe. I remember my first time well :D Pretty poor shots they were, but they improved with patience.
 
Stegsie said:
lol - great story.

just photoshop a kingfisher in; no one will notice! :)
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:thinking::thinking: :LOL:

Yep I will keep you all posted, I am just starting to get some feeling back in my legs now :D
 
purpleclouds said:
It takes longer and longer each time :LOL:
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Thats all I needed to know Phil :help:
Weather permitting I got a green light for tomorrow ( roughly translated means the Wife is away for a few days :woot::woot: ) I thought I might string a few little fat balls around the spot which I choose, that will hopefully give me something else to concentrate on. Anyone taking bets on my first Kingfisher :LOL:
 
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Good luck (y) I really hope you get your chance .
 
I regularly go on a narrowboat cruising on the canals. We see kingfishers regularly and have even managed to cruise past one perched on a branch overhanging canal. Mostly I just see the blue flash past me or across the canal. However, ocassionally you see one perched and then they fly along the canal as you approach on the boat. They might fly 50 to 100 yards and perch again and the cycle repeats itself until they fly away in a big loop back to (I guess) where we started. I have only recently got a lens of enough length to try to get a photo. So like other people, while I have seen them, I have not got a decent photograph. U8myufo, I wish you luck and look forward tpo the next instalment.
 
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