Stick, complete with bird

When Bish and I discussed meeting up to try to photograph kingfishers we were a bit worried that the weather might not play ball.  It was quite windy last night and the forecast cloud cover was a bit of a concern.  Fortunately, we were blessed with both an hour or so of decent light and the male kingfisher agreed to pose.

Bish brought the Hubble and monopod along, so the new lens has been properly christened now :-)

While we did see the kingfisher dive for fish a couple of times, neither of us was in the right place at the right time, so we didn't get to try shots of the bird in flight.  But I am very happy to settle for this shot of the bird perching, clearly focused on something in the water below.  I definitely would not want to be a little minnow in the water below him.

It is not often that a plan comes together so well, particularly when the weather forecaster's auguries boded so poorly for the plan in the first place.  So, all in all, a very satisfactory little trip