I have mentioned before that I would like to see a kingfisher. I know these beautiful birds are around here, but I have only had a brief glimpse of one. Most of the time I am by the river I am running without a good camera on me. @papilloncharity gets some great wildlife pictures in South Africa and has been telling me I need to get out specifically to capture nature.
I headed out on a walk with my bridge camera this morning. It has turned a little cooler and may rain, so there were not very many people about. I walked through the village to the common to follow the River Hiz towards the station. On the common are lots of horses who have had foals this year. I assume this in a fairly young one that still looked a little unsteady.
Some of the others were taking it easy.
I took advantage of the zoom lens to snap these jackdaws.
On the river I saw what looked like a family of mallard ducks.
However I do not think those were the parents as I also saw some moorhens and I think the mostly black chicks belong to them.
Further along I spotted some ducklings. Their mother was hiding, but I got this nice close-up.
There were lots of these yellow iris flowers around.
The river is a chalk stream and runs very clear. At this point it transitions from a stony bed to mud very abruptly. Someone has cut paths through the nettles at various points along the bank. There has been a lot of rubbish in there at times, but it was looking tidy today.
The thistle flowers would looking nice, but watch out for the prickles.
The place I saw a kingfisher before is by the weir that is the site of an old water mill. I did not find any at all today. There are lots of holes in the banks where they may nest.
This mallard was just out on his own.
This is by the station where the bypass crosses the river. This is a fairly new bridge that was built when the old one was found to have structural issues. Originally the road ran over the little bridge I was on with a level crossing over the tracks. Beyond the bridge the river flows past the Henlow fishing lakes. I think I have heard of there being otters around there. There were lots of birds around, but they were too quick for me to get pictures. I also saw some fish jump.
From there I crossed the station footbridge as the Peterborough train departed.
I walked home through the village keeping an eye out for wildlife. The churchyard sometimes has squirrels, but not today. Just a few pigeons.
So my quest was not totally successful, but enjoyable nonetheless. I will try to get out again soon and try some different locations. I will keep an eye out for flashes of blue and orange.
This is my camera, a Fujifilm FinePix S8650. I expect there are newer models now. It was fairly cheap, but suits my needs. It has lots of modes, but I mostly leave it on automatic.
Well, now just look at that! Thank you for the mention Sir Steve and as you do more of these outings, I am sure that you will bag yourself a Kingfisher.
I was lucky to get them fishing in the ocean.
There is also a Giant Kingfisfer in my files somewhere.
Keep it up and you will get yours!
A lovely post here my friend!
Well you helped inspire me. I think I need fresh batteries for my camera and I am ready for more trips like this.
Wow! You are hooked Sir Steve, I cannot tell you how beneficial such outings are. Especially for peace in the soul.
My camera takes one square battery and I have another two spare batteries that I carry in my bag. As soon as one is flat, I replace it with a fully charged one and every night I make sure that all 3 batteries are fully charged.
Canon batteries are expensive and the generic batteries are much cheaper and they do the same job. I think it will be the same with your bridge camera.
Thank you for endorsing our @combination account.
Blessings!
This basic model uses AA batteries and didn't seem to like the rechargeable ones. They can last a while though. I am not keen on disposable batteries generally.
Yeah and as you are not keen on disposables, it is better to get rechargeable ones as they last way longer!
Hey
If you fancy travelling to the Ely area, I know of a great hide over a lake with kingfishers there.
https://peakd.com/creativecoin/@markangeltrueman/bucket-list-photography-wild-kingfishers-original-photography
Amazing and I also have that one somewhere in my files.
This is the one that @steevc saw!
https://hive.blog/hive-106444/@papilloncharity/you-might-never-see-this-again
Sadly didn't do too well in the income stakes as your post!
Thats a cool post with some lovely images. Rewards for that definitely need to be higher ;)
Thank you kindly Sir and what a surprise that the post total suddenly surged after my reply to you. I am sure that the "angel" part in your tag name had something to do with it.
The site that I post on belongs to our charity, The Papillon Foundation, registered in South Africa and I intersperse the charity posts with posts that show my love for nature.
We are also currently in a process to launch a new charity/giveaway and the post is on our site if you would care to visit and take a look.
Thank you once again for whatever happened here today!
Blessings!
Those are some great pictures. Not sure I can justify travelling to Ely right now, but I will consider visiting some of the local nature reserves when I can. Maybe I need to find some local nature experts to advise me.
You will be sure to see your kingfisher, look into the trees not at them and keep having fun.
Those foals are so gorgeous. what lovely gentle pastures and river photography.
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 0/2)
I really hope to see one. I have seen herons and egrets before, but they are easier to spot. We have some nice areas to walk near us.
Patience game with bird photography, "pot luck on the day", keep having fun.
Fuji made some really awesome bridge cameras back in the day. I had one myself that was only about 3 Megapixels but it took some of the most amazing shots. It was so good that my dad even bought one and he used to be a semi professional photographer. You were able add lenses to it with an sleeve type thing. It was pretty cool. These are some really great shots you got here.
I can't change the lens on this one, but it seems versatile enough. Photography can soon get expensive, but you can do a lot with a cheap camera.
Beautiful. It's hard to imagine there is still open countryside left to walk through, I'd have no idea where to go to freely walk along a riverbank in the UK. Extra Kudos for the railway station pic!
We still have plenty of countryside, but we have to protect what is left. We are losing some around here to more housebuilding. I suspect a lot of people hardly ever leave their cities.
I was so excited when I saw my first last year. Beautiful things.
I'll keep looking out for them. There's plenty of small fish in the river for them to feed on.
These are really nice pictures. You must have had fun today capturing this nice animals.