Sunday, September 25, 2011

Belted Kingfisher, Ceryle Alcyon


Day 347: It's a long zoom and a major crop, but when I spotted this male Belted Kingfisher at Mineral Lake today, I knew he had to be my daily feature. When I first arrived at the lake, he was perched on the end of the boat ramp railing. I stopped the car, rolled down the window, and off he went. He landed in a tree with the car window unavoidably between us, so I tried to step out. Nope, he took off again and went clear past the fishing dock. I assumed he was out of range, but walked down to the dock in the hopes of some other photo opportunity, and then I heard him call. Scanning the distant trees visually, I spotted a white dot, centered the camera on it and zoomed in, but he was way too far away. Then to my surprise, he flew toward me and landed on this branch. At 74x digital zoom, the photo is not crisp by any means, but at least I got the salient identifying features in a typical "field guide" pose, including his famous hairdo.

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