I learned today that I am very much out of practice with photographing kingfishers. I was missing shots that I used to be able to capture easily. My reaction times have slowed down because I have been concentrating on bush birds. Today I spent an hour trying to change that. It felt really good to be sitting at the beach in my hide, watching the birds of the inlet and remembering the order of things from years past. The different species all fly in at different stages of the tide as it moves in and out. The kingfishers are also very predictable in what they are likely to be doing when the tide is in or out. When the tide is in they like to perch high and dive for their food, when the tide is out they will flit about the mudflats looking for easy crabs to pick off from lower perches. Capturing those magic diving images is the ultimate with kingfishers and I hope I manage to get back up to speed soon. Below is a selection of today’s images, please enjoy!
