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Rassie

Rassie

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I was at the Etobicoke Creek near the Mississauga Pearson airport today. I had stopped next to the creek in the hopes of getting a peek at the eclipse through all the cloud cover we had at the time. While there I spotted a Belted Kingfisher couple hunting fish from their perch next to the bridge over the creek. It was quite a fertile hunting ground. The birds would take turns diving for fish and then returning to the same perch. After returning with the fish it had to be prepared for swallowing. The bird would violently repeatedly beat the fish against the branch to stun it before swallowing it. A few times the fish was beaten like this as many as three times, and in the process they lost all their eggs.

The birds were far away and the images are heavily cropped, but I'll take them for the story they tell.

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Nice set Rassie. They are beautiful birds. Imagine all you do all day long is fish, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat :)
I know friends who would give their left nuts to just shoot kingfishers all day every day
 
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Rassie said:
I was at the Etobicoke Creek near the Mississauga Pearson airport today. I had stopped next to the creek in the hopes of getting a peek at the eclipse through all the cloud cover we had at the time. While there I spotted a Belted Kingfisher couple hunting fish from their perch next to the bridge over the creek. It was quite a fertile hunting ground. The birds would take turns diving for fish and then returning to the same perch. After returning with the fish it had to be prepared for swallowing. The bird would violently repeatedly beat the fish against the branch to stun it before swallowing it. A few times the fish was beaten like this as many as three times, and in the process they lost all their eggs.

The birds were far away and the images are heavily cropped, but I'll take them for the story they tell.

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Awesome series Rassie. It’s tough enough to finding one close enough to shoot but finding the pair together is amazing. I still haven’t had much luck getting that close while they are handling their prey. Well done. Now you have a go to place. With a little planning you should be able to get even closer. Look around the area for a large bank along the water. If you find one look for burrows. That’s where they nest.
 
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Winston Churchill (Sir) said:
Nice set Rassie. They are beautiful birds. Imagine all you do all day long is fish, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat :)
I know friends who would give their left nuts to just shoot kingfishers all day every day
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Thanks, Elsa. I was lucky with this couple. The location and timing was not ideal, though. The area through which the creek runs is a designated green space with a walking trail. This is right next to a pretty busy street that runs along the edge of the major international airport here, so lots of vehicle traffic and airplanes. The adjacent road crosses the creek with a concrete bridge and the birds' perch is right next to the bridge on the edge of the creek.

I was on a footbridge on the walking trail that crosses the creek, shooting the birds on their perch with the concrete pillars of the vehicle bridge forming the background behind them. To make matters worse, the pillars are full of graffiti and they were also in deep shadow. Adding to that, I shot these images when the solar eclipse yesterday was already well advanced, so light was low and made even more so by heavy cloud cover. This explains the almost black background and high ISO. The ground is too rough to easily walk closer, and as shy as these birds are, they take off as soon as I approach.
 
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Beautiful images, Rassie! I'm in the same boat - the kingfishers I see are usually too far away. Never seen them beating their prey like this! And you're right, what a waste of caviar!
 
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Ralph said:
Awesome series Rassie. It’s tough enough to finding one close enough to shoot but finding the pair together is amazing. I still haven’t had much luck getting that close while they are handling their prey. Well done. Now you have a go to place. With a little planning you should be able to get even closer. Look around the area for a large bank along the water. If you find one look for burrows. That’s where they nest.
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Thanks, Ralph. I do need to figure a way to get closer. Rough ground between the footbridge on the trail where I was and the perch where they were. And with tick season coming soon I'm leery of bushwhacking through that grass....
 
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Rassie said:
Thanks, Ralph. I do need to figure a way to get closer. Rough ground between the footbridge on the trail where I was and the perch where they were. And with tick season coming soon I'm leery of bushwhacking through that grass....
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I’m with you on the tick season. My bushwhacking days have been over for more than 30 years. Hopefully you can figure something out. Excellent shots that tell the story.
 
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