I arrived at the reservoirs before dawn, very much at odds with my biological clock, after a far too brief, and very disjointed sleep. It was mild as I walked eventually along the path between the Marsworth and Startops lakes, and setting the camera to ISO 6400 took s a few shots of the reflections and silhouettes of the far bank against the slow dawning light.
I then walked to my bankside destination where I crawled through the undergrowth to arrive by a fallen tree and set up the camera and my seating, and awaited the rise in the light and hopefully, the arrival of a kingfisher. Ten minutes elapsed whilst still in comparative darkness, and there was a rustling of leaves and cracking of twigs. I greeted the visitor with the guess that he was after the same as myself. It turned out to be Merv, the generous and experienced wildlife photographer who had alerted me to the spot just a week back, I continued to set myself up, and we chatted in whispers. He spotted a kingfisher that I was unable to even see, such was his experience, but even at elevated ISO my chances of getting a shot was zero.
Merv spotted a muntjac in the clearing on the opposing bank, and when it came into my sight I managed to get a few shots of it before it continued its stroll back into the undergrowth.
Later, we both spotted a kingfisher zooming past, but on at least two occasions I simply had to accept that one had passed by, as I failed to register anything. Finally, one alighted on a branch in plain view and I managed to take a shot or two even when it moved to a fresh perch, and as he left I managed to get a blur of wings, that you can just make out is a kingfisher.
Those were the last sighting of any kingfisher perched in our tree studio, though we did see two more fly-bys.
At the end of four and a quarter hours we bid farewell to our viewing platform and walked along the canal till we came to the fork in the path where we went our separate ways saying that we would no doubt meet again as we both frequent these reservoirs. I was no longer a kingfisher virgin! There were too few images to create a gallery, but as a record…
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