Newly Fledged, (female?) Kingfisher.

Dale.

Dale.

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Dale.
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Yes
Tonight it happened.

It's been a tough one, for the KFs more than me but I do have a sore bum, as well as the rest of me.

I keep records for licence purposes and according to the math, this image was 357 hours in the making. I must be doing something wrong.

If I tell you all about this encounter, you may not believe it but it's as true as I'm am typing this.

A lot of you will also be following my KF thread in 'Talk Nature', I'm sure. That's where this year's story lies but tonight's story lies here,

I got a bonus few hours to myself this afternoon, I had some time to myself.

Long story short, either multiple broods have failed, or this is the first, very late one and just up river from my licenced areas. This nest isn't licenced for me but I have been watching things from up and downstream. Not close enough though to see the nest but you don't have to be at it to get a rough story of what is going on. I have photographed an adult male 3 times this year, I am certain it's the same bird all 3 times. That will be Dad.

I've not photographed the female, she'll have been busy brooding.

Onto today/tonight. I sat in a new spot, well hidden and covered in scrim. I had my trusty perch out, freshly placed at the new spot. Same story, loads of flybys, nothing perched. I was just about to pack up when something moved to my left. I looked, expecting it to be a Wren or something but no, it was aKingfisher. It was too close for me to focus the lens on and swinging the lens would've spooked it anyway. I was able to see it though, it had no clue I was there. It was so close that I couldn't focus my eyes on it, my eyes are 55 years old and near vision is now very blurry. I had a feeling it was a fledgling though, I could make out the dull orange on its chest. It stayed perched there for about 2 minutes, even diving into the water at one point. It then flew down to the rocks on the dry river bed, I lost sight but I knew it was practically 6 feet from my feet. It was bound to fly up and land on my perch, surely?

It did.

It stayed there too for a good 2 minutes. When I checked my images for focus, I could then tell it was a youngster, it looks like a female, going on the lower mandible.

I was a happy man, ecstatic infact. The light was crashing though but anyway, just to have this encounter was a privilege. What makes me even happier though is to know that there has been at least one successful brood, they were fledging tonight. In all honesty, I lost count but I thought I was going to get hit in the head at least twice.

Despite the light falling, and having to do some pretty involved noise reduction, I'm quietly pleased with the resulting images, here is one.

I'll take it.

R7, Sigma 150-600C, ISO 4000, f8, 1/200 sec, 600mm.

(images taken under a Schedule 1 licence issued by NatureScot).


Female, Newly Fledged Kingfisher. by Dale, on Flickr
 
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That's brilliant news, Dale (y)
 
Congratulations, I’m so glad things worked out. Well worth the effort I think and excellent images.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Well done Dale. - Glad all your effort is paying off again.

I'm back with my Kingfishers in France and pleased to say that both the male and female turned up for me yesterday (although the female kept her distance).
 
Excellent Dale, well done (y)
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Congratulations, I’m so glad things worked out. Well worth the effort I think and excellent images.
Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

Thanks James.



Vintage Racer said:
Well done Dale. - Glad all your effort is paying off again.

I'm back with my Kingfishers in France and pleased to say that both the male and female turned up for me yesterday (although the female kept her distance).
Click to expand...

Thanks Glynn.


gramps said:
Great stuff Dale (y)
Click to expand...


Cheers Roger.


Phil-D said:
Excellent Dale, well done (y)
Click to expand...

Thank you Phil.
 
Excellent news ;)
 
Dale. said:
R7, Sigma 150-600C, ISO 4000, f8, 1/200 sec, 600mm.
Click to expand...
ISO 4000, impressive, I am still learning with my R7 and noise is one of my issues. Your photo has a better spread across the histogram than my recent efforts. Did you apply much noise reduction?
 
pooley said:
Great result, particularly the second, nice choice of perch. Tech wise a little bright, but everything else is superb - detail, angles, light

well deserved

Mike
Click to expand...


Cheers Mike. I pondered the brightness, I wasn't sure if I'd over done it a little.



Brentor said:
ISO 4000, impressive, I am still learning with my R7 and noise is one of my issues. Your photo has a better spread across the histogram than my recent efforts. Did you apply much noise reduction?
Click to expand...


Cheers.

I tried it in Lightroom first but I didn't like the result so I went over to Topaz. I applied Topaz to the RAW file but got mixed results, as the original was quite grainy but no worse than I'd seen off a 7D at ISO 400.

I can't recall the exact settings but the NR element of it would have been about 25% on the sliders. I tend to use those settings (roughly) most of the time, tweaking to taste.
 
Dale. said:
I tried it in Lightroom first but I didn't like the result so I went over to Topaz. I applied Topaz to the RAW file but got mixed results, as the original was quite grainy but no worse than I'd seen off a 7D at ISO 400.

I can't recall the exact settings but the NR element of it would have been about 25% on the sliders. I tend to use those settings (roughly) most of the time, tweaking to taste.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Do you mean ISO 400 or 4000? Also are you using the latest Lightroom? My pc is approx 6 years old and is struggling with noise reduction on R7 files. I can cope with the speed of Topaz, but the latest Lightroom is another but matter.
 
Brentor said:
Thanks. Do you mean ISO 400 or 4000? Also are you using the latest Lightroom? My pc is approx 6 years old and is struggling with noise reduction on R7 files. I can cope with the speed of Topaz, but the latest Lightroom is another but matter.
Click to expand...


Properly (ish) exposed files off an R7 at 4000 are no more noisy, in my opinion than off a 7D at ISO 400. Conditions come into too of course but at ISO 4000 last night, I was quietly pleased. I don't want to jump on the 7D's back but my experience of it wasn't great. To be fair, I also understand exposure better than I did back when I had the 7D.

Anyhoo.......

My PC is new, I built at the start of the year. It smashes workflow times. I treated it to the LR and PS subscription and upgraded from LR5 and PS6 on my old PC.

Topaz takes seconds to clean and then save a file on this PC, it took forever on my old one.
 
Adore the second frame Dale,( all three are super but 2 just speaks to me) thanks for the help damned if I could find it.

Buddy isn't any of this wildlife malarky the hardest game? And quite frankly if it wasn't so hard would the results make your heart sing in the same way if 'twas easy.

Hat off matey, but more than that sitting with baby kingies so close yer eyes can't focus.........meh life aint so bad is it?

Dale thanks for sharing all this with us,

Ta mate :love:

stu
 
Stuart Philpott said:
Adore the second frame Dale,( all three are super but 2 just speaks to me) thanks for the help damned if I could find it.

Buddy isn't any of this wildlife malarky the hardest game? And quite frankly if it wasn't so hard would the results make your heart sing in the same way if 'twas easy.

Hat off matey, but more than that sitting with baby kingies so close yer eyes can't focus.........meh life aint so bad is it?

Dale thanks for sharing all this with us,

Ta mate :love:

stu
Click to expand...


Cheers Stu .......... I knew you'd like that one. (y)
 
Please excuse my ignorance; I'm not a wildlife photographer.
I rarely get out to shoot these days and occasionally I shoot at Stockgrove Park lake. I don't even sit in a hide as a) I don't have the time, b) someone's bound to walk right up to it and ask questions and c) the "fun permissions officer" won't allow it. I don't know if there are any KF's there but don't want to do something silly and fall foul of any legal stuff. Can you explain the Schedule 1 licence business please?
 
WaltonR said:
Please excuse my ignorance; I'm not a wildlife photographer.
I rarely get out to shoot these days and occasionally I shoot at Stockgrove Park lake. I don't even sit in a hide as a) I don't have the time, b) someone's bound to walk right up to it and ask questions and c) the "fun permissions officer" won't allow it. I don't know if there are any KF's there but don't want to do something silly and fall foul of any legal stuff. Can you explain the Schedule 1 licence business please?
Click to expand...


I can relate to some things here.

Time, I struggle with that too and this takes a lot of it. I fit it around my family life etc, mainly weekends but some evenings too. My routine seems to have become usually 2 evenings a week and half (sometimes a full) a day on the weekend, plus whatever moments I can grab in between. There is a drawback and that is that other areas of my photography suffer as I spend most of my spare time with the Kingfishers this time of year.

The hide thing, yes, I get that too, I've had stones thrown at mine. These days, I work with a scrim type thing and a ghillie suit. I cover my gear with the scrim. My pop up hide seemed to unsettle the Kingfishers more than the scrim does. Also, this time of year, 'my' patch is mostly overgrown, which makes hiding much easier. You'd be suprised how invisible you can become, just by stepping back a few feet into the undergrowth. With scrim and a ghillie, I can melt away.

If you are having problems with permissions at the lake, there must be river nearby? If so, walk that, a mile or 2 each way. Learn the Kingfisher's call(s), you are much more likely to hear them initially than to see them. This will confirm if there are Kingfishers about. Then, if you hear one, just sit and watch and learn its habits and routines. Early morning is best, then the evenings but I have photographed them in the early afternoons. There's no set times, just some times are better than others.

You could just spend some time at the lake if it's public, don't take a camera or hide etc, just go, walk, listen and watch, if there are Kingfishers there, it won't take too long for them to reveal themselves but I virtually guarantee, you will hear them before you see them, so learn the calls. There's a ton of videos on YouTube about Kingfisher calls.

The Schedule 1 stuff basically means that Kingfishers are on the 'amber list' and therefore have extra protection over and above the normal protections that any wild bird in the UK has. Basically, it is illegal to disturb Kingfishers (or any other Schedule 1 species) at or near the nest whilst courtship, breeding, brooding etc is in progress. My licence covers me to be at a nest site legally if I choose to be. I am still obligated though to keep disturbance to a minimim, something I would do anyway. Despite being licenced, I tend to photograph the Kingfshers away from the nest site but still closer than an unlicenced person could safely go. The time I spend at the nest is to observe for short periods and to make records of what activity, numbers etc are happening. I have to do a licence return at the end of every breeding season, this is a legal obligation.

There are many opinions about what constitutes disturbance and/or an offence regarding disturbance at Schedule 1 nest sites and it is case/site specific too, each one is different. My advice though, if you're not licenced, don't do it, play safe. The fines are significant and can also involve a jail term.

All that said, you are free to fill your boots with Kingfisher photos away from an active nest, without a licence.

Back to the time thing, I take advantage of every chance I can. I sometimes don't feel like it, it's a tough gig but you have to be in it to win it. It's much the same with landscapes, I often don't feel like going but I make myself go and I'm always glad I did.

Photographing Kingfishers isn't super hard though, it takes time, often is uncomfortable and the hours put in can have little return. It's frustrating at times but when it does come together, I know why I do it. It's not just about images, yesterday, I spent over an hour with 2 Kingfisher fledglings, it was frustrating that they were just about 10-15 metres away on 2 occasions and they never landed on my perch. In all honesty though, just being there with them and watching them, was a privilege. The adult birds were about too, although they are wiser and would just fly close by. Also, some Kingfishers are more forgiving than others, IME. For example, park Kingfishers tend to be more used to humans than river Kingfishers and less likely to fly away at the site of a human. This isn't a hard and fast 'rule' but is usually the case.

One very simple trick you could try, even if you don't hear or see any Kingfishers, is just stick a suitable perch into the lake/river banking, over some still or slow moving water and away from over hanging branches. Just sit and watch, new perches are (usually) like magnets to a Kingfisher. Take it down when you're done.

You might get lucky and get one in the first 10 minutes, or more likely, it will take a while.


Good luck.
 
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Dale. said:
I can relate to some things here.

Time, I struggle with that too and this takes a lot of it. I fit it around my family life etc, mainly weekends but some evenings too. My routine seems to have become usually 2 evenings a week and half (sometimes a full) a day on the weekend, plus whatever moments I can grab in between. There is a drawback and that is that other areas of my photography suffer as I spend most of my spare time with the Kingfishers this time of year.

The hide thing, yes, I get that too, I've had stones thrown at mine. These days, I work with a scrim type thing and a ghillie suit. I cover my gear with the scrim. My pop up hide seemed to unsettle the Kingfishers more than the scrim does. Also, this time of year, 'my' patch is mostly overgrown, which makes hiding much easier. You'd be suprised how invisible you can become, just by stepping back a few feet into the undergrowth. With scrim and a ghillie, I can melt away.

If you are having problems with permissions at the lake, there must be river nearby? If so, walk that, a mile or 2 each way. Learn the Kingfisher's call(s), you are much more likely to hear them initially than to see them. This will confirm if there are Kingfishers about. Then, if you hear one, just sit and watch and learn its habits and routines. Early morning is best, then the evenings but I have photographed them in the early afternoons. There's no set times, just some times are better than others.

You could just spend some time at the lake if it's public, don't take a camera or hide etc, just go, walk, listen and watch, if there are Kingfishers there, it won't take too long for them to reveal themselves but I virtually guarantee, you will hear them before you see them, so learn the calls. There's a ton of videos on YouTube about Kingfisher calls.

The Schedule 1 stuff basically means that Kingfishers are on the 'amber list' and therefore have extra protection over and above the normal protections that any wild bird in the UK has. Basically, it is illegal to disturb Kingfishers (or any other Schedule 1 species) at or near the nest whilst courtship, breeding, brooding etc is in progress. My licence covers me to be at a nest site legally if I choose to be. I am still obligated though to keep disturbance to a minimim, something I would do anyway. Despite being licenced, I tend to photograph the Kingfshers away from the nest site but still closer than an unlicenced person could safely go. The time I spend at the nest is to observe for short periods and to make records of what activity, numbers etc are happening. I have to do a licence return at the end of every breeding season, this is a legal obligation.

There are many opinions about what constitutes disturbance and/or an offence regarding disturbance at Schedule 1 nest sites and it is case/site specific too, each one is different. My advice though, if you're not licenced, don't do it, play safe. The fines are significant and can also involve a jail term.

All that said, you are free to fill your boots with Kingfisher photos away from an active nest, without a licence.

Back to the time thing, I take advantage of every chance I can. I sometimes don't feel like it, it's a tough gig but you have to be in it to win it. It's much the same with landscapes, I often don't feel like going but I make myself go and I'm always glad I did.

Photographing Kingfishers isn't super hard though, it takes time, often is uncomfortable and the hours put in can have little return. It's frustrating at times but when it does come together, I know why I do it. It's not just about images, yesterday, I spent over an hour with 2 Kingfisher fledglings, it was frustrating that they were just about 10-15 metres away on 2 occasions and they never landed on my perch. In all honesty though, just being there with them and watching them, was a privilege. The adult birds were about too, although they are wiser and would just fly close by. Also, some Kingfishers are more forgiving than others, IME. For example, park Kingfishers tend to be more used to humans than river Kingfishers and less likely to fly away at the site of a human. This isn't a hard and fast 'rule' but is usually the case.

One very simple trick you could try, even if you don't hear or see any Kingfishers, is just stick a suitable perch into the lake/river banking, over some still or slow moving water and away from over hanging branches. Just sit and watch, new perches are (usually) like magnets to a Kingfisher. Take it down when you're done.

You might get lucky and get one in the first 10 minutes, or more likely, it will take a while.


Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, Dale.
Thank you very much for the comprehensive explanation, it has given me plenty of food for thought. The "man-made" perch is something I really ought to try too, alongside visiting places not quite so public.
Thank you also for explaining the Schedule 1 regulations too. Fore-warned is fore-armed as they say.
 
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