What a week this has been for Alcedo Atthis. Many readers will know of my predilection with these small, skittish and utterly charming birds. One of my theories in getting close enough to photograph them is to use a boat especially on waters where the birds are used to boats. The River Bure must at times resemble the M1 but not at this time of year thankfully.
Sunday was a grim day. A North Easterly blowing in across north Norfolk but appropriate clothing helped. A chug upstream at 2 knots to Coltishall made the the 4 hour round trip bearable. I swung the boat around at the common and then heard the familiar call sign and a flash of blue was lost in the high branches of an overhanging tree.

Taking the way off the vessel and manouevering to to take a steady shot with over 14lbs of camera and glass is no mean feat.
Soon she was down and checking out the colour scheme in the next garden.

Monday 16th March had to be the most exhilarating of days ever for sightings and images taken. For the last three years I have not had my eye in as regards wildlife photography and it showed in the number of rejects. I soon worked out that it was the operator as I normally use this kit as a landlubber but here I was on an unstable platform. I resolved the problem of a throbbing Mann under my feet by using ‘active mode’ on the image stabilisation. I suppose it is an age thing in that using my contact lenses precludes me from seeing the LCD display. It was only later in the day when downloading and processing images that I could see the attrition rate.

All in all I spent about 45 hours on the day boat chugging up and down the Bure over 6 days. Apart from Friday, I was frozen to the core but I got better at trying to steer and shoot at the same time or cut the engine and be wary of striking other boats or objects as I swung this way and that shooting from inside the cabin at all times.It took 2 hours to meander up and down stream and I worked out the territories by the sorties and skirmishes taking place around me but by my reckoning I was seeing 4 breeding pairs and a fifth beyond Wroxham Broad that would scream in late afternoon and squabble with the Wroxham 2.