Rye Meads RSPB

Thought i would travel a little further afield today and head to Hoddesden and Rye Meads RSPB. Very very quiet on the bird front, most of the usual suspects with the addition of Lapwings, but sadly too far out to photograph.
I suppose the days highlight was a Male Kingfisher, my 1st shot of one, but sadly he was quite far as well so images are not great. but as they say something is better than nothing.

Image 1 - Hey Good Looking



Image 2 to 4 - Kingfisher

Like the first shot with the reflections and quite like the last kingfisher shot. Very difficult to capture i should imagine.

Well done, in my experience Kingfishers do not stay still if you are close to them.

Wow, congrats on the Kingfisher shots Mark, the one bird I would love to photograph.

Thank you Alistair, Richard and Ken

Fantastic day for reflections today, very calm water and great light.
The backdrop spoiled images 2 & 3, i think it was their breeding box, a shame all the front was not covered in reeds to make it look more natural.
Just being able to capture one in a photo Richard was good enough for me for starters. This is only the 2nd one i have seen, and the 1st one did not stay around long as it was chased by a Blackbird.
Hopefully you will get your chance to photograph these lovely birds one day Ken, finding a nice quiet spot on a river somewhere might be your best bet though

First one makes an interesting shot Mark what with the reflection. The rest don't do it for me sorry. Is the first Kingfisher heavily cropped?

Yes sadly Dave Kingfisher images are heavily cropped which has degraded the image quality. But these images were not uploaded as great shots either, they would never win any prizes,lol. As a guy said to me yesterday, its people who live with streams and small rivers at the end of their garden or can sit for hours on a riverside that get the award winning shots of Kingfishers
I think i would of needed a 1000mm lens to get a decent shot of him. In the two locations he is in in these images, i would say he is about 80 to 100 feet away. I was a shame that he did not come and sit on a branch that was coming out of the pond 20 to 30 feet from the hide, that would of made a great shot.

I love watching Kingfishers Mark, all you normally get is a bright flash flying past, so its always good to get one perched. NO4 works best for me.

Thanks Brian. No 4 was the furthest away but it was a good natural background The guy i was chatting to yesterday had a 7D and a 500mm, he was getting some lovely sharp images of him, was almost tempted to ask him if i could of used his lens The breeding box was an eyesore really but it has to be the birds wellbeing 1st

Here is an image taken at 170mm just to give you an idea on the size of the box.

Looks like you had a nice day! Love Kingfishers (who doesn't!)

xx