Kingfisher!!!!!!

A sprinkle of snow this morning but great excitement at meeting up with camera club friends for the 'kingfisher behind Argos' hunt.

It wasn't long before we had our first glimpse. I would have been happy to have posted whatever I'd taken at that point, blurred blob, it wouldn't have mattered, I was just so pleased we'd seen it, and reasonably closely (having now checked those first three images they are truly awful!).

We had two trips up and down the same stretch of water and instead of heading home we thought we'd try the opposite direction where we got talking to a guy who said he'd seen it near the bridge. We went up for a reccy, guy in tow and within moments it appeared on the opposite side of the river to us on a branch and stayed for a little while. I felt very giddy, it was fab. It wasn't easy to get a good focus amongst the tangle of branches and you always wish you had a bigger lens - this image is heavily cropped and therefore at ISO3200 not brilliant quality, but it was quality time.

It flew off briefly then came back, we watched it dive off a low branch and come out with a fish which it took to a branch further back. There was quite a crowd gathering by this time. After having his lunch he flew off downstream again, so we went for a celebratory coffee!

This area near the bridge looks a great spot to watch for him in future. For a few more of him see my birds folder on Flickr