Thursday 10 March 2011

Question from Ian Hunt.

Does anyone know the best place to photograph Kingfishers?

4 comments:

Mark Pugh said...

This from John Armstrong:

http://www.nottmbirds.org.uk/sites/Holmepierrepont.html

Anonymous said...

It might be worth having a chat with Richard Pittam. He is an excellent bird photographer and has lots of Kingfisher images on his site (http://www.richardpittam.com/wildaperture/BirdsIndexed/Kingfisher.htm) most of which appear to have been taken on the River Dove.

Chris said...

Richard may also be able to provide guidance as to how close we can get to the Kingfishers as they are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

http://www.naturenet.net/law/wcagen.html#birds

RichardP said...

The River Dove family have moved, since the last two winters have decimated their nest holes - to where, I know not [yet]. You could try the River Derwent at Cromford, between the Church and the railway bridge [http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cromford&aq=&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=19.878609,39.506836&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cromford,+Matlock,+Derbyshire,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.110733,-1.553514&spn=0.009828,0.01929&z=16]

Chris is quite right about the Scheduling - this affects them at their breeding times [next few weeks], if you intentionally photograph them within approx. 55 foot of their nest or young, you need a licence, otherwise the golden rule of wildlife photography applies - your subject's welfare always comes before anything else. [ http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/policy/wildbirdslaw/birdsandlaw/wca/schedules.aspx ]

If you don't catch up with your Kingfishers, pop down to the High Peak junction and catch up with "ratty" the Water Vole on the Cromford Canal - always good for a few hours early morning.

Hope this helps.
Regards
Richard

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