Wild Wednesday - and Wide Wednesday (extra)

Local fellow blipper Daver64 was very helpful a few days ago, telling me where in Jesmond Dene he's been capturing his super recent shots of kingfishers (many thanks Paul!). Armed with that knowledge I went there this morning to try my luck. Having had 3 glimpses of them over about an hour and a half (but with no opportunity to grab a shot), I'd nearly given up for the day when I spotted this one snacking on a little fish. Even with my long lens I've had to crop the photo quite a bit, and the high ISO necessary has produced a fair bit of noise but with a bit of tweaking I think it's OK. I've tagged it for Wild Wednesday, admirably hosted by Cailleach (sorry there was no snow here, Cailleach - I know you wanted some - although it was decidedly chilly, I was glad I'd put on my thermals, Icelandic jumper and woolly hat!).

It's worth looking large.

In case I didn't find a kingfisher, I'd taken my tripod and Big Stopper filter, as the Wide Wednesday challenge today is "Flowing Water". Before getting the kingfisher shot I'd taken one of the waterfall so I've added that as my extra for Wide Wednesday. Many thanks to Steveng for hosting that this week - hope you don't mind it being an extra, Steve!