A Surprise at Lemsford

22nd September 2013

I thought that today I would try my luck at photographing a Kingfisher at Lemsford and set myself up in the first hide. Lemsford has been incredibly quiet so far, but I am probably a couple of months earlier than usual. However, even today there was no sign of a Grey Wagtail or the normally numerous Green Sandpipers. There was however a perfectly positioned Kingfisher perch right in front of me so I had the camera trained on that just in case. After half an hour there was still no sign of a Kingfisher, but I could see a Grey Wagtail feeding downstream in front of the second In Focus hide.

When I arrived at the hide the wagtail was still there but had moved to the other side of the cress beds. However, after a short wait, it gradually moved closer and I was able to get a few shots. Judging by the amount of yellow around its tail you can see why they are confused with Yellow Wagtails

But then the inevitable happened. Having transferred hides to photograph the Grey Wagtail, I could now see the Kingfisher sitting on its perch in front of the other hide. Not surprisingly by the time I got down there the bird had flown but it did re-appear after half an hour and allowed a few photos.

So what was the surprise? Well, the surprise was a female Kestrel which glided in from the right, hovered briefly low over the cress bed and than landed on top of a bank of dead vegetation on the far side of the cress bed. How odd is that?