My first Kingfisher (not!)

I was invited by Swampy to go photograph Kingfishers ... not having ever seen a Kingfisher in my life, I thought "Hey, why not?"

I jumped in my car around 9am and just as I started to drive off, a heron flew over my house ... a good omen?

By the time I got to March, I thought to myself "Did I remember to replace the memory card from last night's upload to Blipfoto? .... did I %$££" Ok ... there's always Tesco .. buy another memory card. Tesco did not open until 10am and I promised I would meet Swampy (for the very first time) at around 9.30am ..... "can't be late for the first meeting"

I arrived at the RSPB at around 9.50am .. he was still waiting for me. Good. However, the waters were too high in the river and some factory was pumping out into the river, so we ere not likely to see Kingfishers there.

We picked up a spare memory card from Swampy's house (well done mate) and continued on our merry ways .... off to Welney. Guess what? My super duper auto focus lens would not auto focus. After quite a bit of agro (between me and the lens), we settled on a compromise and I focused manually. In the end, it did not really matter as there were too many fishermen out on the nearby river who would have scared any self-respecting Kingfisher away anyway. So .... plan Z .... we decided to have a steak out (or whatever they are called) and wait for the barn owl to turn up. 3 hour slater ... no Barn owl. Then one of Swampy's mates (Velofor) arrived and suggested we drive to Denver "What, Collorado?" I asked (I didn't quite have enogh petrol in the tank for that). Apparently, Denver was just a few miles up the road. Not much there either, but on the way back, lo and behold, we spotted a Barn Owl (but not up nice and close as the plan had been). I focussed manually on a moving target and snapped this pathetic effort. Still .... this is the first time I have photographed this beautiful creature. At last, something to celebrate.

We spoke too soon .... Swampy returned to his car to find not only did he have a flat tyre, but his spare was flat too, but again, Velofor came to the rescue with an electric inflator thingy (good man to have around).

So the day did not quite go to plan, but I did meet two new friends and see a bit more of my new local countryside.

Same time again next week guys :-)