The featured banner photo is of a female Belted Kingfisher that I took October 10, 2016, on the Grand River in Lyons Michigan. (Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Females have a chestnut belly band and flanks.) This was the best of the worst in the series, most were too blurry to even identify as she was quite active and we were floating down river on a pontoon.
Earlier this spring I had decided to try to catch some new photos of the Kingfisher, especially since I thought the ones I took seven years ago of the female were all too blurry and/or too far away. As soon as I started hearing its tell-tale rattling call flying by I headed down to the pond with my camera. He was flying around and not landing at first but then so graciously perched on a tree brach nearby. Despite the breezes making him bob up and down a bit I managed to (or rather my Nikon) catch him in action. Once he took flight I did the usual and quickly clicked the shutter button hoping for the best, … just one or two would be great, and thank you.
Even as much, or as little as, the event was “planned” I didn’t expect to capture any good photos that day (but always hope!) let alone catching some spectacular ones of this male (the two photos above). In the end there were over 50 photos that I threw away before getting to the very end of the series and finding these … absolute perfection.
On a similar beautiful note, I love it every time I hear, “I thought of you when I saw (any-kind-of) bird.” This time it came a few days ago from a dear friend that I had just caught up with a few days before, and after we hadn’t seen each other in who-knows-how-long. She text, “… I thought of you because a Kingfisher just flew by and landed on the boat next-door! … He is fishing!” What a delight to imagine what she was seeing at the time. And it was even more of a delight that she was sharing the moment with me. And for that I have to say thank you again Karen. Thank you! 🙂
Riverbank Treasures 