Kingfisher on a boat

We had a wonderful time at the weekend on a Stuart Line Cruises guided birdwatching cruise out of Exmouth. The firm are such great hosts and the staff are so professional it’s a pleasure to be welcomed on board by them. Tickets are pocket-money prices and the bar refreshments are great value. It’s unusual to get two caffè lattes, a four-finger KitKat, a twin pack of stem ginger cookies and a two-finger Twix for £6.60 with today’s prices. Don’t worry – I’m not paid by them – just a keen customer – and one who likes a bargain. We had pre-booked our hot steak pasties for lunch (delicious) and there were blankets for our knees should we have wanted them.

I’ll be sharing some of my favourite images over the week, but I thought I’d start with this female Kingfisher. I know it’s a female because of the red lower mandible. A sharp-eyed fellow-traveller spotted it as we approached a small wooden boat on the Exe and I was able to get a few photographs of it before we got closer than my lens’s minimum focussing distance.

What a charmer she is.

I particularly like the brightly lit orange colour of the wooden boat it is perched on. In the strong sunlight it’s almost possible to see the brown pigment of the back feathers which host the iridescent interference patterns of the bright electric blue which overpowers it.

Kingfishers tend to move to larger expanses of water when the weather is cold, as the smaller streams and canals ice over. I hope it’s catching many fish and keeping safe and warm in this cold snap.

Thank you so much for being here with me celebrating the natural world for another year.

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More Kingfishers