Belted Kingfisher diving

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During a recent photo outing to Texas and Louisiana, I saw a lot of Kingfishers and Northern Harriers but had obtained no decent photos of either. On November 13 at the Lacassine NWR in Louisiana, I saw this Belted Kingfisher hovering over the water at a distance and was able to focus on the bird and track it to the water.

Belted Kingfisher - November 13 2021 - Lacassine NWR (LA)

The three photos were taken with an Olympus E-M1X camera and a 150-400mm f4.5 TC lens. Shots were taken handheld @ 500mm, 1/4000 sec, f/8, ISO 800 or 1000.

These images were small in the frame. I used the Enhance feature in Lightroom to create enlarged versions.

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.