![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/belted-kingfisher-5205-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"belted-kingfisher-5205-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus a personal vaccination report.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/8, 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 Last summer I was able to get many nice photos of this cooperative male kingfisher as he was fishing from and grooming on this dead branch over a pond in the mountains. I posted other photos of him last year so readers will likely recognize this distinctive perch but these four images are new to my blog.<\/p>\n At first I was disappointed when he kept his back to me most of the time but when he started reaching back to preen his tail and wing feathers he gave me some interesting poses anyway. Here I like the good look at his flared tail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/8, 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 Next he started preening his primary wing feathers. It’s too bad that out of focus branch is behind the feather in his bill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/8, 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 He spent quite a bit of time smearing preen oil from his preen (uropygial) gland on his tail feathers. Previously I posted a photo of him where we can actually see the preen gland which is at the base of the raised rump feathers we see here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/8, 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 Near the end of his preening session he finally turned around on the perch and faced me. I believe what he was doing here was some kind of kingfisher version of a rouse in order to settle his feathers back into place. While doing it he held his wings slightly out and sort of quivered them slowly (it’s hard to describe).<\/p>\n He never did erect his feathers and shake like most birds do.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – My personal Covid-19 vaccination report: I’m only including it here because before I had my two doses I was a little nervous about potential side effects and I suspect some of my readers are in the same boat. So I decided to report on my experience.<\/em><\/p>\n I had my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on January 30th and my second dose yesterday morning, exactly three weeks later (I’m 73 years old so I qualified). Both were a piece of cake. I developed a mildly sore arm from both shots but no side effects from either one, none at all. I suppose it’s possible that I could still develop side effects from yesterday’s dose but at this point I’d be surprised.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago I heard from from an old high school friend who said one of his friends is convinced that Covid vaccine contains microchips that will allow the ‘guvment’ to track and control people so he refuses to be vaccinated. My response to my friend was to tell him I’m convinced that the average IQ of a certain portion of the American populace has dropped 30 points in the last few years.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/belted-kingfisher-5222-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"belted-kingfisher-5222-ron-dudley\\"")
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