Kingfisher

A few more year ticks gathered on Wednesday morning, finishing off with the Bewick Swans at Offam Farm, left us outside Arundel WWT with some time to spare. We decided to have a walk around to see if we could add Kingfisher and Bullfinch to our list. It proved to be a good decision as we ended up with the best photographic opportunity of the year so far. In fact the best opportunity for a good few weeks now.

Sitting in the Scrape hide we watched a Kingfisher for about an hour. The water was iced over and he was having difficulty finding anywhere to fish.

First Kingfisher

He was great to watch but he was not really coming close enough and the light was in the wrong direction. Thinking I would give the Bullfinches a go I left the hide and wandered up the path. I was initially distracted by a Long-tailed Tit that fluttered around my head a bit like a large butterfly. It was very close but I could not get a clear shot of it.

Long-tailed Tit

Tracking the Long-tailed Tit I came across a second Kingfisher, very still, and this time very close, with the light in the right direction. There was no cover so you just had to stand still and hope that he would not be spooked.

Second Kingfisher

He moved around between perches but stayed close and was clearly focused on hunting. We ended up with six or seven people watching and he still flew to within about twelve feet of where we were standing

I never thought I would get this close to a Kingfisher without being concealed in a hide.

A great opportunity and we even had a second miracle before we left the site. A teal walking on water!