What the hell is that?

Despite it being the start of Autumn the birding is very flat at the moment. With no real year list to go chasing after and no lifers within an 18 hour drive (Sumburgh hotel is tempting but a bit far!) I'm back to local birding. Today I wanted to try out my new camera - a mirrorless Canon R5. This is pretty-much cutting edge tech as far as cameras go - more like a computer with a lens attached. I headed off down to Maple Lodge after lunch to go and try for the resident and very tame kingfisher. This juvenile bird has been showing stupidly well from the rotunda hide since mid-summer.As ever down there I had the hide almost to myself. A couple of people came in over about two hours but otherwise I could set up my gear and cross my fingers. 

Overall it was pretty quiet but I had a good chance to learn about my camera. Ducks were almost entirely absent but a few young moorhens and a grey wagtail.were pottering about on the edges of the pool.

On the larger pool a dabchick and its very large youngster were fishing amongst the reedsand a lone swan came in to have a preen.There were two targets  I really wanted to try the camera out on. The first was the dragonflies, mainly migrant hawkers, which were patrolling the reeds. They gave the camera a real try-out on its focus tracking ability. I think it performed pretty well, locking onto the fast moving insects and holding them as they darted around.

They also stopped on the kingfisher posts giving me the opportunity to see how well you could crop in distant objects, again it past the test with flying colours.

The young kingfisher was a bit elusive today. It did come into the pool four times, but only perched three times to allow me to get any images. When it did though it posed very nicely with the light coming from the side and bringing its colours out nicely.

What was interesting was when it dived from its perch and came up with a tasty snack. I assumed it was a small fish. It was only when I looked at the photos later the I realised it was actually a beetle. 

You can see its large bulbous eyes and long legs. Those more knowledgeable than me on these things think it is one of the great diving beetles. It looks a bit crusty and hard work to digest to me but I assume it knows what it is doing! Certainly it seemed very satisfied when it had finished and flew off!

Overall it was a very good couple of hours in the hide. Not the best showing from the wildlife down there but the beetle made up for it! The camera passed its first test with flying colours though I still need to read the instruction manual!!!!