{"id":86683,"date":"2020-06-25T06:03:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T12:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=86683"},"modified":"2020-06-25T08:51:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T14:51:21","slug":"kingfisher-heaven-yesterday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/25\/kingfisher-heaven-yesterday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Kingfisher Heaven Yesterday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought I’d NEVER have more than enough time with a kingfisher up close but yesterday morning that’s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

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1\/6400, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the male Belted Kingfisher I’ve photographed in the mountains occasionally over the last several months and he’s on what may be his favorite fishing perch because I’ve photographed him on it fairly often in recent weeks. Here he’s becoming situated on the perch immediately after landing there and it’s the first shot I took of him yesterday out of a total of 893. And no, that number isn’t a typo.<\/p>\n

I love his perky pose.<\/p>\n

On several occasions when he landed here I switched to my smaller zoom lens in an attempt to get takeoff and flight shots. Following are a couple of the results of that effort taken later in the morning.<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Usually when I post takeoff shots I include a photo of the bird perched just prior to liftoff to provide perspective to my readers but this time he didn’t give me a chance. When I switched camera gear he took off as soon as I aimed my smaller lens at him so I don’t have a perched shot.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

In this short series he isn’t diving after a fish – instead he’s headed for a different fishing perch overhanging the stream.<\/p>\n

I took 1720 photos yesterday morning and over half of them were of this unbelievably cooperative kingfisher. I had him in my viewfinder off and on for 78 minutes and for much of that time he was up close as he preened and watched for fish over the stream from a variety of perches. It goes without saying that you’ll be seeing more photos of him sometime in the future but at this point I haven’t had time to even look at all of yesterday’s photos, much less get them culled.<\/p>\n

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I never thought I’d see the day when I left a cooperative kingfisher while it was close and still performing for me but that’s exactly what I did yesterday. I still had much of my bird route in front of me and if I waited any longer light would be harsh before I completed it. So I just left.<\/p>\n

It made me think of Tom Webster, my very first bird photography mentor thirteen years ago on Nature Photographers Network (a photo critique site). I’ll be forever grateful to Tom because it was him that steered me to buying my first Canon 500mm f\/4 lens instead of settling for the lesser and cheaper lens I was seriously considering. He insisted that I’d regret buying the inferior lens and he was absolutely right.<\/p>\n

Tom’s mantra that he included on his NPN byline was “Never leave birds to look for birds.” Tom’s advice was always spot on so having left the kingfisher I feel guilty and potentially stupid.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand if I hadn’t left when I did I’d have missed seeing and photographing a small herd of sleek and handsome elk. There were more of them out of frame.<\/p>\n

We make choices and then we deal with the consequences – good, bad or indifferent..<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought I’d NEVER have more than enough time with a kingfisher up close but yesterday morning that’s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

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