During the UK coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown from late March 2020 we in England were given a strict rule allowing only one hour of exercise outdoors a day. I used the allowed hour for walks outside to explore my local area. Fortunately there is a river only 15mins walk away and I'd been hearing the unmistakable call of kingfishers along it for weeks.
Fortunately my ever tolerant other half didn't mind choosing to walk along this river just about every day through April and early May. As soon as the government relaxed England's rules on lockdown, allowing unlimited time outdoors, I started spending more and more time on the river. Leaving trail cameras around and listening to their calls gave me a picture of their comings and goings. I feel very lucky to live in a beautiful part of England and to have this on my doorstep. My only regret is I should have spent more time here sooner!
I noticed a perch overlooking a calm pool in the river which the pair of kingfishers seemed to use regularly. While I only saw them sat on it a couple of times, the amount of white splats of poo told me it was one of their favourite spots!
So I left a trail camera tucked into some foliage watching the perch for a week. I now have hundreds of short clips of these kingfishers on this perch, from just sitting there to preening and even spraying the leaves with poo (fortunately missing the camera!).
My next challenge was how to get a setup working for wide angle images (something I'm a big fan of in wildlife photography where possible) of the kingfishers...
The photo below shows me leaving a camera (Canon 5D MkIII) trained on the kingfishers favourite perch...
Using a PIR sensor (similar to that of security lights) the camera would be triggered should anything move in its field of vision, in this case anything landing on the stick.
The sensor is that good it triggered the camera to take images as I tried my best to discretely leave the area. Obviously I failed as I looked back to hear the camera clicking away!
I left the camera out for a few days, checking it regularly to make sure all was ok, and I'm very pleased with the results (see below).
At the same time I wanted to test whether the kingfishers would use a perch I put in the river. So about 100m upstream I plonked a stick in the river, held upright by rocks, and left another trail camera on lookout.
After a few days I went to check the trail camera and nothing. Content that it could take a while I left the trail camera where it was and planned to check again in another few days.
My curiosity got the better of me and, after two days, I went to check again. Walking to the spot where I'd put the perch I noticed it had disappeared. Fortunately the trail camera was still there, and while I'm not 100% sure what caused it, there was footage of an otter at night climbing all over it!
I actually laughed out loud when I watched the footage happy in the knowledge that the river was healthy enough to sustain a top predator like an otter.
The footage also showed a numbers of dogs (and therefore dog walkers) playing in the water not far away. I had no problem with this, but if I was to set up a hide or something similar for me to try and photograph the kingfishers this spot obviously wasn't going to work.
My first perch had disappeared, no doubt to the current taking it downstream on the river. So I looked for another, aiming for a more horizontal perch that could be used by more than one kingfisher at the same time. I found this one and promptly set it up in the same way, using rocks to anchor it in the river.
Once again I left a trail camera trained on the perch to see what happened...
Sure enough, after a few days I started getting footage of the kingfisher pair using the perch - mainly for bashing fish before returning to their nest to feed to their young.
While they used the perch infrequently, around once or twice every two days, I was comfortable in the knowledge that it was being used. It was now time to try for some proper photos with the DSLR.
My first attempt at photographing the kingfishers with a DSLR wasn't successful. I set up a hide around 7 or 8 metres away to fit the whole perch in the frame with a 500mm lens.
I heard the kingfishers flying past going up and down the river numerous times, but not once did they land on the perch. I even saw one dive into the river not far from the perch, but it flew off as soon as it caught something. I wondered whether the hide, a new large and unfamiliar object, put them off.
My next idea was to lie at the edge of the river (there was a small pebble 'beach' area which made for an uncomfortable place to lie) and camouflage both the camera and me. At least that way it would be a much smaller, albeit unfamiliar, object to the kingfishers but I hoped small enough for them not to worry about.
This did bring them slightly closer as the photos below show, but not what I had in mind for anything decent photographically. Admittedly I'm sure the birds would have gotten used to the presence of me on the riverside and the hide, but I couldn't leave the hide out for fear of other people seeing it and either destroying or stealing it. Nor did I have the time to lie in wait all day every day. So it was on to plan C...
Meanwhile I was having a lot more success with the wide angle setup on their favourite perch. By this point I'd left the camera in that spot for over a week (constantly checking it from the other side of the river and bringing it back home at night) and setting up in different angles.
The photos below are a series of that setup. While I appreciate this type of image isn't for everyone, I have plenty of close-up shots of kingfishers over the years - the classic 'bird on a stick' photo. So I wanted to try something different and a wide angle seemed like a good place to start.
With the success of the wide angle images it was back to 'my perch' further upstream and plan C. This time I planned to put a camera with a 500mm lens at water level at the river's edge, trained on the perch, and covered with camouflage.
Using something called a Camranger (https://camranger.com) I could sit back on the riverbank hidden away and control the camera from my phone. The Camranger is a great bit of kit for remote photography in this way as you can change the camera settings and the focus point all from your phone, so I could adjust things as the light changed through the day. Equally I could change where the camera was focussed depending on where the kingfisher would land. It has its limitations in that the focussing is slow as it requires 'live view' in the camera, and obviously I couldn't move anything/recompose the shot, but I hope you agree the images below show it was successful.
Again, I was aiming 'small in the frame' images of the kingfishers at water level. While the background is blurred I think it provides context to the bird and shows their environment. Just like the wide angle photos I wanted to try something a little different, and I'm pleased with the results...