ijsvogel / kingfisher
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Yes, I know, now the quality I like to publish. But I was just so thrilled to get this shot.

When I was a kid in the 1970s these were extremely rare (as was the cormorant) but with the cleaner waters from the mid 80s onwards they made a comeback. Harsh winters like 2009/2010 hit these little birds hard but not as hard as some people feared.

I found this little fellow during my lunchtime walk not far from the office where I work.

Normally these have two speeds, creating a blue blur over the water at a 150km/h (or so it seems) or sitting like this. They are easily scared and hard to approach. This was at 15 meters at the very least through a lot of small branches. Lousy shot but I was so happy to finally get it!

Now, to make up for the quality of this: