Male Belted Kingfisher, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa
I still owe you a picture from one of our paddle tours with the kayak earlier this month. It looks like I’m getting better with taking a picture of my friend “the bastard”. The long time readers of my blog may remember that I gave the Belted Kingfisher this ugly name, because I still do not have a photo that satisfies my ideas of a good wildlife image. Yes, this time I got this male kingfisher at least sharp but the image needed still some cropping. It was actually a pair that flew ahead of us along the shore of the Mississippi River. I would love to fill the frame with this beautiful bird but they are extremely skittish and took off from their perch several times as soon I had them within the reach of the 600 mm focal length. Using the kayak is anyway not the best approach for this bird. Hiding in a tent blind may lead to better success and maybe one of these days in spring or fall I will do that. I’m not unhappy with this environmental shot of the Belted Kingfisher but I know there is still a lot of room for improvement. I guess I keep calling him “the bastard” until then…😉
Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/250 s, f/6.3, ISO 400