You often hear a Belted Kingfisher before you see it, with a distinctive chatter as they swoop over ponds or marshes looking for a fish lunch.
This one landed in the Spoonie Tree, too far for a good photo of such a small bird, but a picturesque scene.
A little while later one that was clearly on a mission passed me as I walked along a dike.
And then he landed in another artful looking dead tree, creating an unmistakable silhouette.
Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, SC
September 2, 2023
Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, SC
February 19, 2023
There are almost always a Belted Kingfisher or two swooping around the ponds at Donnelley WMA. This morning I thought I was going to get a real close up of one on a rice field trunk. Ha!
Before I could even get my camera to eye level she was gone.
I did track her across the pond.
Where she landed on the Spoonie Tree…way to far for a good shot, but she did stop moving!
Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, SC
December 29, 2022
I photographed a few passes of this Belted Kingfisher including this set as he swooped along a marsh inlet.
She had sounded the characteristic Kingfisher chatter just before taking flight or I probably would have missed her.
She is identifiable as a female by the brown stripe on her chest that males lack.
Botany Bay Wildlife Area, Edisto, SC
December 3, 2022
Botany Bay Wildlife Area, Edisto, SC
December 3, 2022
Belted Kingfishers often perch on rice field trunks.
I don’t often get this close before they fly off.
Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, SC
November 4, 2022
We are starting to see Belted Kingfishers after several month’s absence. This first one was checking out the ponds at Donnelley Wildlife Management Area yesterday.
There were two chasing each other around the pond at Magnolia Cemetery on Sunday. I captured one as he swooped low over the pond.
This Belted Kingfisher tormented me, as they generally do, by hovering over a small pond out of my camera’s reach.
Then he rested. I liked the appearance of his crown as an inversion of the palm tree.
A Belted Kingfisher paused briefly on this dead limb over a view of a pond before swooping away.
Acutally, he flew almost into me as I was watching a Great Blue Heron standing at a water trunk. We both jumped and he made a speedy exit to this tree top down the trail.
I inched my way along the trail towards the tree, the Kingfisher zipped back to the spot he originally wanted on the trunk. This gave him a close view of the Ashley River just beyond the trunk and the rice field pond that now was between us.
