The potential was there but except for some interesting behavior near the end I might as well have stayed home.
Yesterday morning in the mountains part of the Belted Kingfisher family showed up to fish in the stream that has been partially rejuvenated by our recent monsoonal rains. This young female was loosely accompanied by her male parent who is perched on the far right side of the same dead tree. Both were obviously using their perches in the tree to fish from.
The adult male was mostly buried in the branches but the young female was out in the open so I concentrated on her. I was optimistic about getting takeoff and flight shots when she dove on a fish because she’d most likely be in front of the branches to the left during takeoff and it was clear sailing after that. I had a nice background and reasonably good light so I was willing to sit there waiting for her to dive on a fish for what seemed like an eternity.
But she threw a kingfisher wrench into my plans.
She quickly turned 180° on her perch and took off to my right which put her behind all the branches. Because she was so close to the branches she had to twist 90° in flight to avoid hitting them with her right wing which gave me a wonderful and unusual flight posture. But thanks to the branches it was all in vain.
When she took off from a different perch a few minutes later she did pretty much the same thing for three…
consecutive…
shots in a burst. She took off behind branches twice more that morning but I’ll spare readers the pain of looking at the results.
Earlier this summer the adult male was quite tolerant of his offspring, seeming to encourage their efforts to learn how to fish and even delivering the occasional small fish to them. But by yesterday all that had changed. Several times I saw him get visibly upset when the young female came anywhere near him. At one point when she landed a little too close to him he started chattering loudly, raised his wings in a threat posture and eventually…
went on the attack. He chased her off, effectively displacing her from her perch, and then…
he let her know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t pleased having to share his fishing territory with her.
By this time of year he’s really beat up from molt and the rigors of raising a family so maybe that’s part of the reason he was more grumpy than usual. This behavior was fascinating to see but the rest of my morning with the kingfishers was mostly a waste.
Yes I know, every bird photographer has days like this but for me, when it happens with kingfishers, I reserve the right to bellyache about it. Kingfishers were a nemesis of mine for far too long for it to be otherwise.
Ron
In vain…? Au contraire, I love the shadows of branches on the body!! But then I am a bit strange.
As always, deep thanks for your wonderful photos and words.
Any day with Kingfishers is a good day. I especially like the fifth shot — her eye and the brown parts are perfectly framed by those branches.
I think that one is the best of the bunch, Marty. Particularly with the placement of her eye, as you mention.
These are wonderful! Every time I’ve had a chzncetosee them, they’ve moved so fast all I’ve gotten were VERY brief glimpses…these wonderful shots allow metobsee what I’ve missed.
Yup, that sounds like kingfishers. Thank you, Patty.
Some days it is best to just observe. Maybe the heat, lack of water and fish are making him grumpy, I know I am.
April, there did seem to be a relative lack of fish in the stream, even though there’s now more water. In all that time I believe I only saw two dives on fish between the two of them. In the past they’ve had much better luck than that..
I feel your pain. My nemesis bird.
I get that, Steve.
Unlucky for you maybe. Lucky for us simply because, well, Kingfishers. I guess photoshopping your head onto the last photo would illustrate Terri’s “Grumpy old males”.
Lyle, I’m definitely old and I may have been a little grumpy when I first saw these photos on my screen but I got over it quickly. It’s all part of the bird photography game. Now I’m just disappointed.
A couple of the flight photos are interesting in spite of the branches. Guess there are no rules of etiquette such as ladies first in the world of kingfisher fishing.
Ron, you were due for a Murphy moment. Recently you have had some very good kingfisher experiences.
I think every photographer has those days when he or she regrets that they even went out.
“you were due for a Murphy moment”
If that’s the case I’m glad it’s behind me. Thanks, Everett.
Picture 5 has its own beauty. The branches echo the shape of the Kingfisher.
Thanks, Marty.
Taunting you it seems……. 😉 Obviously has her flight skills pretty well perfected. Fun even if the twigs got in the way…… 🙂
Judy, she not only has good flight skills, she’s already a pretty good fisher.
Since you didn’t acknowledge the double entendre in Terri”s comment I am going to repeat it. “Grumpy old males!”
Nice photos. I, for one, am not bothered at all by sticks in front of birds.
Thanks, Porcupine.
Grumpy old males 🙂
I suspect that if it had been the female parent she’d have been ‘grumpy’ as well.