Kingfishers in Landsberg - Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

Soon it will photo-summit season in Bavaria; first the Naturfototage in Fürstenfeldbruck at the beginning of May followed by the Fotogipfel in Oberstdorf a couple of months later. On a whim I was leafing through the sponsors for the Naturfototage and found a link to Eisvogelpark Landsberg (Kingfisher Park Landsberg) and was immediately alert. I only live 15 min from Landsberg and kingfishers have been on my list for a very long time; the last time I saw one of these fantastic birds was with my grandfather as a young teen in Wiltshire. The hide price of €120 for the day wasn't enough to put me off and so I called Lucas and Sebastian to make a reservation for the next available spot.

Landsberg Kingfisher || OMDS OM-1, 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 s, ISO 1250

And so I found myself in a sleepy corner of Landsberg practically underneath the motorway bridge that I'd never visited before despite living nearby for nearly 25 years. The hide is a relatively primitive shed overlooking a stream and a pond that has been set up to attract local wildlife, but especially the kingfishers. Whilst basic (and a bit cramped when all three seats are occupied), the shed is dry, warm and cozy and equipped with comfortable office chairs and Arca-Swiss compatible gimbles mounted on wooden boards that you can put your camera on. The camera pokes through camouflage netting to the action.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker- In Flight and Perched

I ended up sharing the hide with two very agreeable strangers. Whilst it was my first visit to the hide this was their 5th and they both came with Nikon Z8s and BIIIG telephoto lenses, almost putting my Olympus 100-400 mm tele-zoom to shame. They were a little envious of my Pro-Capture mode, however. This function allows you to anticipate action and catch it even if your reflexes aren't quite sharp. Keeping your finger on the shutter release, the camera constantly buffers the last 14 shots through the camera's internal memory and when you press through the camera will commit those 14 shots to the SD card as well as the shots going forward.

Eurasian Nuthatch

I started my Merlin bird identification App on my phone to keep an eye on what birds we might expect to fly in and was far from disappointed with the variety on offer. Whilst we saw only a fraction of what the App managed to identify (including treecreepers, blackcaps and goldcrests), what we saw on the day were a number of different tits, chaffinches, jays, black squirrels and, yes, a kingfisher.

Some of the species identified by Merlin

Spending a day in a hide is not an experience that I'd recommend for people with restless legs or claustrophobia. It's a patience game and you've got to be prepared to sit and wait for the wildlife to come to you. For the first half hour or so we hardly saw anything as the fauna had to become accustomed to our presence; the rush of arriving, arranging and settling in for us was unsettling for them. Plus the light was still behind the hill; Sandau lies in the steep sided north-south running Lech valley below the level of the surrounding countryside and the sun was still climbing up to the east.

Red Squirrel - With and Without Nuthatch Photobomber

Had I been alone or with less pleasant people, the waiting would have been challenging, but I lucked out with my companions for the day (Helen and Stephan, if you've read this far 'lucked out' paradoxically means that you couldn't have been more lucky). We passed the time softly exchanging photography stories and witty banter. When one of us spotted an animal we hushedly pointed it out. Brushed elbows on the bench were readily excused (did I mention how tight it was in the hide?). It could easily have been an uncomfortable 6 h ordeal. As it was, I've gained two new 'tog friends.

So, did we see much of the kingfishers? My companions told me of days they'd spent in the hide where they saw five visits but they'd also had days where the kingfishers were no-shows. After about 45 min we had our first visit from a male kingfisher (females have red in their beaks). Despite the bird being easily distinguishable from the background and having bird detection switched on in camera, I spent a panicked first few seconds-which-felt-like hours strugling to capture it sharp.

Focus Dammit!  || OMDS OM-1, 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000 s, ISO 1000

Nearly...  || OMDS OM-1, 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000 s, ISO 1250

Phew, There He Is!  || OMDS OM-1, 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000 s, ISO 1250

He arrived seemingly from out of nowhere, caught and swallowed about three or four fish before heading off, presumably down to a nest somewhere on the river 150 m west of us.

Kingfisher and Prey || OMDS OM-1, 400 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000 s, ISO 1250

After grabbing my portraits, I decided it was time to attempt some action shots and so on the second visit around 3 h later I zoomed out with the Olympus 100-400 f/5.0-6.3 and settled down to wait in Pro Capture mode to make sure I didn't miss any action. I was really happy how this first timelapse worked out. I assembled the five images in ON1 and then simply masked out anything that wasn't bird in images 1-4 resulting in a very pleasing final image that will definitely be printed.

Looking for Prey || OMDS OM-1, 186 mm, f/5.9, 1/1600, ISO 1000

Kingfisher Timelapse I || OMDS OM-1, 186 mm, f/5.9, 1/1600, ISO 1000

Kingfisher Timelapse II  || OMDS OM-1, 186 mm, f/5.9, 1/1600, ISO 1000

If you can justify the €120 asking price, then I can heartily recommend the Eisvogelpark and I can imagine going back to have another crack at the wildlife, perhaps this time in winter. Don't forget to pack yourself a lunch and bring enough spare batteries and SD cards; I ran through a full battery and a 64 GB SD card in the 6 h I was there, racking up a ridiculous 4,260 images. I shot so many because I was using continuous shooting mode to maximise my chances of capturing the action shot I wanted. I came away with a lot of very presentable portrait shots of the birds and the squirrels.

Due to the relatively low light and fast shutter speed I was forced to take all of the photos at a higher ISO than I am comfortable with on the Olympus m43 camera. Fortunately, I was able to reduce a lot of the image noise in ON1 Photo Raw 2025.

Starlings and Jays

As well as grabbing some improved portrait shots of some birds that I already had, I managed to tick off three new species that had long been on my 'to-do' list; starling, jay and of course the kingfisher.

Blue Tit and Great Tit

Another time I think I would concentrate on more action shots. I'll need to read up a little on the optimal settings for the Pro Capture mode (number of shots, interval) to ensure getting some solid images. At times the photography felt like shooting fish in a barrel, almost like taking images of animals at the zoo. Lucas and Sebastian put out food (including topping-up the pond with live fish every day if I understood correctly). But kingfishers. Enough said.