Shaking a tail feather or two

The weather was good but only for a limited time, so I drove back to the Stonehouse area and into the domain of the kingfisher I’d seen near St Cyr’s church. I spent some time standing by the canal just looking, which allowed me to observe birds and insects as well as a fisherman catching bream and tench. He was quite proud of his catch, a 6 lb bream, and showed me a picture on his phone! He was very informative about the technicalities of the fishing options there as well as the health of the canal’s environment.

Another friendly dog walker was also informative about the habits of the local kingfishers, which he often sees from his home about five hundred yards further down the canal. He’s invited me to pop in for coffee when I go looking near his house another day.

As often happens it is just when I’m feeling like giving up the quest to see a kingfisher that one arrives. Today it flew up from the nearby river Frome which runs parallel to the slightly elevated canal running about fifty yards away further down the slope. When I saw it landing about forty yards away on a small branch, I quickly edged my way along the towpath eventually emerging from behind tall reeds to find a clearer view.

I observed it for about ten minutes while it watched, dived, caught fish and returned to a new perch, before flying along the canal trees for about twenty yards.  I caught this view just after it had landed and eaten its catch, which surprised me. So I was glad I’d chosen quite a high shutter speed.
I'm now hoping to return with a plan to actually get a reasonable shot of its dive into the water, the emergence from underwater and then the take-off to return to its perch. All in good time.