Diving Common Kingfisher : Teifi Marshes, Cardigan

Although I have built up a decent collection of perched Common Kingfisher images over the years I have realised that I have very few images of the species diving for prey.

My 500mm prime 'big' lens that I carry for the majority of my time in the field has too narrow a field of view to capture diving shots so on our next visit to the caravan I decided to bring along my 70-200mm f2.8 IS Mkll zoom lens and give it ago.

The two juvenile Common Kingfishers that had been frequenting the Kingfisher Hide at Teifi Marshes had dispersed to find their own territories so instead I visited the Mallard Hide where I was told adult birds had returned to feed.

I set myself up with a beanbag and cable shutter trigger and changed my shutter mode from mechanical at 12fps to electronic silent mode at 20fps.

Whilst photographing perched Kingfishers is easy trying to capture a diving bird is quite the opposite, attempting to anticipate where and when the bird is going to dive is frustratingly difficult.

I varied the focal lengths of the lens which gave me different fields of view and crops some of which are a little too tight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first serious effort and will certainly be having a few more attempts in the near future, I came away with some images that I am fairly pleased with although the process is still very much a work in progress.........