the work's kingfisher

there i was thinking i'd have to treat you all to another shot of the freezing foggy fields of my journey home - trust me, a LOT of my blips will probably feature this alleyway of green between home and work - when i noticed this fella. at first i thought the a/c was on the blink and making delicate chirruping sounds (it has been known), but, as if to prove me wrong, i looked up from my sweet'n'sour and there, on the railing outside the window, was a bird. "goodness" i thought (honest, i'm that polite with my exclamations...) "what a lovely shiny blue back that bird has", closely followed by "what is it?" and quickly and just before he hopped around to face me, "its a kingfisher". (i call it 'he', but it could've been a 'she' - i'm afraid i don't know how to tell and the 'king' bit steers my choice of pronoun rather than any specific gender bias).

i didn't have my camera with me at the time so i rather awkwardly gathered up my fleece, jumper and food (dropping my phone on the way - its OK, thank you for asking :-)) and quickly, but not crazily lest i scare him, retrieved my camera from my office.

you can see, he was there when i got back too, obligingly flying from one end of the balcony to the other (usually just as i got near, he'd head to the other end :-)) making his lovely chirrup all the while. what a fine fella he is!

i think i was lucky. the glass he is behind is mirrored so i suspect he probably couldn't see much of me, and maybe quite a lot of himself, and so it was very easy to get very close. initially i wasn't keen on the reflections in the glass, but they're growing on me and i didn't want to go outside - i'd like to think because i didn't want to worry him, but more likely its because its cold! ;-)

i got several shots but this one grabbed me the most. its presented straight from the camera! :-)