Male kingfisher
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...