My Saturday Bird this week is a male Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis).
Alternative common English names include Eurasian Kingfisher and River Kingfisher although I don’t recall ever seeing one on a river. The species is found across Europe, North Africa and Asia.
This individual was photographed on a small pool next to a canal in southern Cheshire, England in the early 1990s.
This is my day 15 contribution to Becky’s April Squares: Top photo challenge.
A male Common Kingfisher on top of a stick I had positioned so that the bird was in front of the meadow from the portable hide (blind) I had set up.
This is my contribution to the Cosmic Photo Challenge: The Birds and the Bees.
I decided to keep it simple and go with the prompt by using a small selection of photos taken in various gardens around the town of Nantwich in southern Cheshire, England.
Birds. A pair of House Sparrows making more House Sparrows in a Cheshire garden.
Bird and Bee. Not really but as close as I could get. The insect in the bill of this male Common Kingfisher appears to have an ovipositor so could be a sawfly or solitary wasp.
Bees. Well, a singular Honey Bee gathering pollen in a Cheshire garden.
This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Common.
My first thought was of the various species of flora and fauna with Common in their common English names.
A female Common Merganser with young on Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada.
A Common Frog in a garden pond in Cheshire, England.
A pair of Common Tern mating on a boulder in Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada.
A male Common Kingfisher photographed in Cheshire, England.
This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Back Catalog.
My first thought was to check my last few Throwback Thursday posts. That got me nowhere so I started going through my archives.
I came across my photos of a Common Kingfisher taken in the early 1990s. These gave me an idea for this challenge.
I spent a couple of weeks locating a portable hide on the edge of a pool and setting up a selection of perches for the bird to use. After the time spent setting up and then sitting in the hide while taking the photos I was happy with the shots. But given the quality of digital captures and the quality of modern lenses I would love to reshoot the species at some point in the future.
A contribution to Becky’s July Squares: Blue challenge.
This is a Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) also known as the Eurasian Kingfisher and River Kingfisher. The colour has been described as blue-green upperparts with pale azure-blue back and rump. I have noticed that the blue colours changes depending on quality and direction of the light falling on the bird.
Interestingly enough, the feathers aren’t blue, they contain no pigments. The colour is produced by the fine surfaces of the feathers interfering with the wavelengths of light. That is presumably why the colours can change depending on the light.
ThIs is my contribution to the Wits End Weekly Photo Challenge: Oh, the Place You’ll Go.
The challenge brought back memories of a question I posed on a photography forum some years ago. I asked what people would like to go back to photograph with modern equipment?
Having been a photographer since the late 1970s there’s quite a list of locations and situations that I would like to photograph again varying from motorsports to wildlife spectacles. I would have great fun re-shooting any of the selections below.
In the early 1980s I was living in London, England and traveling around Europe in the summer photographing motorcycle endurance racing. Team Bike at the Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle race, France in 1982.
In the mid 1980s I was visiting Scotland to photograph nature and landscapes for photo libraries. A light beam on a hillside, Loch Arkaig, Scotland near sunset in the autumn.
In the late 1980s I was documenting the nesting cycles of some European bird species. An adult Eurasian Blue Tit feeding young in a nestbox, Cheshire, England.
In the early 1990s I was living in Cheshire, England. I spent some time positioning a portable hide (blind) to allow me to sit within a couple of yards of a Common Kingfisher.
In the late 1990s I was living in Saskatchewan, Canada. In the autumn parts of Saskatchewan are a major stopover for some species of birds heading south for the winter. Huge numbers of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes gather together in various locations. Snow Geese taking flight at Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area, Saskatchewan.
Winters in Saskatchewan can be very cold but also very spectacular. A frozen section of marsh at sunset, Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan at -40°.
