The Quest for a Kingfisher
One sunny morning I woke up, looked outside and wondered... what is out there? There has to be some living creature out there right now living its life going about its business. It was then I thought to myself, for some random reason, a kingfisher! I will find a kingfisher today and if i'm lucky I'll even get a photo of one. To anyone out there who knows kingfishers or has tried to see one for themselves in the wild, you may be thinking good luck finding a kingfisher and getting a photo in just one day. Well, you would be right. It was not until last week that I finally completed my quest of photographing a kingfisher and this is that story.
Who doesn't love pizza? Pizza is great! I used to deliver it during the summer to earn a little cash. Whilst on delivery I found myself taking pizza to the same road over and over again, its name 'Kingfisher walk'. On one of my days off I visited Kingfisher walk and followed it to an open lake which was used for inland fishing. I asked the guy at reception if I could look around the lakes (pretending I was interested in fishing at his lake) and he said yes. I had done some previous research about the behaviour of kingfishers and so I thought I'd put what I learned to the test. Using my iPhone I played out loud a sound recording from a kingfisher, as there was a chance one may respond to the call. After about an hour or so the lakes were closing up for the night and so we had to put on hold the search for a kingfisher.
The following week I left my house and went to my local nature reserve, admittedly just to see what wildlife I could find. In my lack of attempt I stumbled upon a kingfisher, he was sat on a thin branch placed slightly above a small stream in a bank along the footpath. In the heat of the moment I rushed to get my camera out my bag, not at all prepared for this unexpected turn of events and of course in my panic the kingfisher was gone. I returned to this site in the coming weeks, in hope i'd see the kingfisher again, but I never did. September was fast approaching by this point and I had to return to university in Chester.
I'm now in Chester and things are busy but the quest is still on! I'm a member of the RSPB and over the holidays I witnessed many upbeat tweets on social media about how active the kingfisher was at their reserve, Burton Mere. Obviously this was my first port of call to find myself a kingfisher. I went to this reserve several times in the months leading up to Christmas, yet I was never lucky enough to see one. Maybe I'll have better luck at home.
Nope. Christmas came and went and I was beginning to loose hope. The last time I saw a kingfisher was several months ago by this point. I was back in Chester and back at Burton Mere, this time a tweet had gone out in the morning suggesting good and close view of the kingfisher at a particular point in the reserve due to the kingfishers usual hunting spot being frozen over. It was exceptionally cold and I had arrived with 2 hours of daylight left. It was not until I arrived that I realised I had no idea where this particular spot was. So I was walking around aimlessly asking passerby's where this spot is, to my surprise no one knew what I was talking about, I felt a little like I had gone crazy in my pursuit to find a kingfisher. However, luckily, for my own sanity I found Sam.
You're right, Sam is not a kingfisher but he was the reason I completed the kingfisher quest. I asked him the same question I had been asking everyone who passed me by "do you know where I can see the kingfisher?" He turned to me and said "lets find one for you". We went to the spot where I was told you could get close views of the kingfisher but as per usual there was no kingfisher in sight. I was getting close in giving up my quest for the kingfisher, but I spoke with Sam and we followed each other on Instagram.
The next day Sam posted a picture of a kingfisher on Instagram, I looked at where about's he found it and it said 'Chester'! I immediately sent him a message, as you do and he told me its exact location. The next day I went there and guess what I found?... A kingfisher! A real life kingfisher just 5 minutes walk from my uni house and it was there in the wild hunting for fish. After all this time it was right under my nose but I never gave up and I can tell you it was worth it.
That's it, the quest for a kingfisher and my story of how I photographed one. If you ever wake up on a sunny morning, consider looking outside your window, just for a moment and think about what else could be out there just waiting for you to come and find it.