
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
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.
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.
Tormentor of this photographer, that is. I often see them at my favorite wildlife management area, but somehow they are always a few wing beats ahead.
I get closer, and just as the the camera is halfway up, zoom…
And sometimes they aren’t Kingfishers at all.