I woke up early this morning with a plan to go to a State Park in search of Eagles and Osprey. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for me. I thought the rain was supposed to start later in the day, however the sky looked dark and the forecast said rain was imminent. At first, I decided to cancel my outing altogether and continue working on various house projects. But then I saw the sun peaking through and decided to give it a shot. Instead of going to the park, I chose to return to the spot that gave me my best picture of a Great Egret years ago. I'm glad I did!
I arrived at the pond as a light mist was just stopping. I grabbed my camera, monopod, and 2x teleconverter, and made my way to the edge of the pond. At first, all I could spot were about four geese in the distance. But then I heard the distinct call of the Belted Kingfisher. Just off in the distance, a lone female was sitting on the branch of a dead tree. I put on the teleconverter to extend my shooting range to 800mm and started framing my shots.
After she sat perched for awhile, trying to spot her next target, she took off and went for the kill. As some of you may know, Kingfishers will dive into the water head first to catch their prey. After standing and holding my camera on target for over 15 minutes, I had to take a break. Of course, that is always when the action happens. I wish I would have brought my tripod which may have allowed me to catch her entering the water. I was only able to pick up focus shortly after she came out of the water.
She made her way back to the same tree and began to smack the crayfish onto the branch, preparing to eat it. At one point the crayfish was tossed into the air and caught again. I was lucky enough to capture the moment.
All told, it ended up being a great day to be out in nature. Hopefully this moment will be a reminder to me if I ever doubt leaving the house because of weather again. Great photos happen in all types of environments and weather, just getting out there is all that is needed.
