RSPB Rye Meads

Paid a visit to the RSPB nature reserve at Rye meads today. It started off a very cloudy afternoon. took a few shots with my V1 and 55-200, including this one of a Canada goose.

I then found a hide which was called " the kingfisher hide" and was able to watch a couple of kingfishers involved in the fish sharing ritual where the male shares fish with the female before mating. Well I was told that was what was happening but the two birds were almost mutually exclusive most of the time and were at the far end of the pond where by eye I could only just see a blue/red blob which stayed mostly on a perch at the far end.

Through the camera at it's 540mm equivalent far end I could just about make out that one bird had a fish in it's mouth for a considerable amount of time. Unfortunately, despite waiting for a long time the birds didn't really come close enough for me to get any decent shots. Even the guy next to me with a D3/D4 and 600mm F4 said it was a bit out of his reach too.

We did see one of the birds showing off diving in to the water for the other bird though whcih was interesting.....Next time I'm taking the 70-200 F2.8 and the teleconverter to get me a 810mm equiv and slightly closer.... LOL