PORTRAIT OF A KINGFISHER

A promise is a promise. After 4 hours waiting in my homemade hide yesterday morning, listening to the kingfisher splashing away 2 metres off without being able to see him (her actually, it's a female) and then seeing her perched calmly in full view but just too far away to photograph, at last she was good enough to land at a photographable distance, although the light was a bit strong by then. Truth is it gave me a special thrill to see this beauty so close up without causing any nuisance at all. Here are some of the photos she let me take while up close.

HOMEMADE HIDE FOR KINGFISHERS

This morning at dawn, following the tips of my friend Oscar González, I went back to Charco Salado with a homemade hide I made the previous evening. My main target was Kingfisher, without ruling out any other goodies that might turn up.

To avoid frightening off the birds I made only a small viewing slit in the cloth covering the hide, greatly cutting down by field of vision. Imagine how galling it was to hear a Kingfisher repeatedly splashing into the water to my right only metres away without being able to get the camera on him (or her as it turned out)!!

Meanwhile I snapped some of the waders feeding on the mud around the hide, including these Common Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plover.

Common Sandpipers

 Green Sandpipers

Little Ringed Plover

While I was packing away the homemade hide to leave, the Kingfisher suddenly came back, so I shot back inside the rapidly propped up hide again. How it panned out I'll tell you in another post in a few days. But it wasn't at all bad!