I felt in the need of a change of scene after being at home for a few days so this afternoon I went out for a bit of a drive to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT) at Arundel.  It was one of those overcast, start of autumn, sort of days and I had few hopes of anything much photographic wise. Especially because I set off in light rain.    Pretty much that’s how the the afternoon continued and, although the rain cleared up, the light wasn’t exactly ideal; I couldn’t get off ISO 1600 even on subjects completely in the open.  

Sum total for the afternoon was 10 photos.  A bit different from the hundreds and thousands I’d been taking in Africa so recently.  But things turned out pretty well.  On arriving in one of the hides I spotted a kingfisher on a stick near the hide.  It didn’t stay and flew off but I hung around in the hide with the camera set up on that stick and it flew back a little while later and I grabbed one shot before it flew off to a better dried stem across the pond.  Over the next hour and a half I had the pleasure of watching it hover, call and occasionally dive (catching a very small fish on one occasion).  In that time it came back to the stick just once and I got three further shots before it flew off for good.  Each of those four was a good one so I thought I’d share them all!  

So, what about the other six photos?  Well, I mucked about a bit and took a few intentionally ‘high-key’ shots (mainly because of the very diffuse light reflecting off the water) of a little grebe and a black-headed gull.  They worked out OK too:

So an unpromising day, just 10 pics and a surprisingly good return on a speculative drive.