Kingfisher

Yesterday our boat was on the River Thames in the morning being used as safety cover for a charity lock to lock swim.

When the race had finished we decided to make the most of the sunny day and go looking for Kingfishers.

My sister was in charge of the boat as she has passed her RYA power boat handling course.

We headed in the direction where we know a Kingfisher has a territory.

 On spotting the first Kingfisher my sister turned the boat around, switched the engine off which enabled us to drifted with the current.

The river took us gradually to the edge where the Kingfisher was perched. The boat moved so slowly that the Kingfisher didn't take any notice of us.

 I carefully walked to the front of the boat and started to take some shots.

I got so close that I had to lean backwards as we floated underneath where he was sat. 

When I looked back at my photos I could tell that it was a male Kingfisher, you can tell it is a male because females have a red underbeak.

Male Kingfisher

After about an hour of enjoying the quietness of the river, the gentle breeze and the sun, we reached the next territory where I occassionally see one or two Kingfishers but this time we were very lucky to see four Kingfishers flying together.
One particular Kingfisher sat pearched on the side of a gate, fishing.
I took plenty of photos of it as he dived down in to the water after fish.
On one ocassion the Kingfisher rose out of the water with a fish in its beak but as he went to land back on the gate he dropped the fish.
He immediately turned and tried to catch the fish as it fell through the air, The Kingfisher hovered over where the fish had fallen for a moment before giving up.

 In total we spotted 6 different Kingfishers over a 3 hour trip. We also looked along the waters edge for water voles and although a couple were spotted in the morning during the charity swim, I didn't see any in the afternoon.