Thanks Isac and Sundar. The bird had been on a perch for a little while and I had already got some shots of it when I noticed that it was getting ready to fly off, luckily it flew off at 90 degrees to me and kept at the same distance so I didn't have to refocus as it was flying.
Gary, as I said in the earlier post, the bird took off from a perch at 90 degrees to me so it stayed at the same distance from me as it flew, I could see it was about to take off so I recomposed the shot off to the side that I hoped it was going to go and when it jumped I hit the button and machine gunned it, luckily this shot worked.
Kingfishers are pretty much creatures of habit, so if you've seen them in an area there's every chance you'll see them there again, they like to perch on something overhanging the water usually within a metre or so of the surface, they don't seem to like it if the waters surface is disturbed by wind ripples or stuff like that's it might be best to find a sheltered spot and be prepared for a long wait. Of course everything I've said here applies to the Kingfishers local to me, the ones in your area might like to hang around outside McDonalds smoking cigarettes and drinking beer for all I know.
There was a nature prog. from my local country park on t.v where kingfishers were seen off i go all the gear bugger all reckon they were taken somewhere else.
Sounds pretty standard to me, the amount of times I've been told that some interesting bird has been seen regularly in an area and then when I rock up there's nothing to be seen is not with mentioning. If you want to get into bird and wildlife photography it might pay you to find out if there are any facebook groups or forums for your local area.
Had a pair plus one, fishing and chasing around in front of me on the river for hours on Sunday, but as it was raining, my camera was 40 miles away at home! Many years ago we used to fish a lake where the residents were so accustomed to anglers that they would sometimes fish off our rod tips. I did have some really good photographs (all things being relative - cheap, point and shoot camera) but like the majority of my printed pictures from back then, they probably got thrown away.
