Belted Kingfisher Visits
The Belted Kingfisher is a stocky, large-headed bird that is a year-round resident around the Chesapeake Bay area. On occasion I’ll see one perched on a phone line alongside the road and marsh. You are lucky if you can stop the car and quickly snap a quality photo, they are so flighty!
So you can imagine why I think it is a real treat when a Belted Kingfisher visits our Osprey nest platform during the fall/winter months. They aren’t one to stay long, just a stop, do a little fishing, then move on. But they do seem to like the perch and come often. You just have to have a sharp eye to catch a sighting of these tiny birds a few hundred feet out on the platform.
Here’s a series from one recent morning, when I finally got lucky in capturing one doing a little fishing.
With the everlasting warm temps we have been experiencing this season, we’ve had a lot of fog around the water. Here’s another photo taken around the same time on another morning of heavy fog. The Belted Kingfisher only sat for a minute and was gone. I don’t think he could see down in the water to sight any fish. It was time to move on to find breakfast elsewhere!
With my distance, the photos did not do justice for such a pretty bird. To show what he looks like, the next two are my favorite captures of the Belted Kingfisher, taken at Chincoteague NWR, Virginia, a few years back.
See? I told you he was a pretty bird! 🙂
I was contacted by Carol Bucklin, a local professional Maryland painter, requesting to paint the Belted Kingfisher from my last photo above. I, of course, said yes! Please go to Carol’s link to see her oil painting, which I am proud to add has sold! You won’t be disappointed.
http://carolbucklin.fineartstudioonline.com/works/1237398/kingfisher
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend!
