The King and I

Nature inevitably seems to teach us humility and patience.

One day last week I set out to take pictures of Bufflehead ducks, which turned out to be Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks, and Widgeons. While I did manage to get some decent pictures of those, I found myself constantly harassed by that trickster the Kingfisher wherever I went.

Rather than overloading your internet service, I decided to make a quick collage of several, but not all, of my Kingfisher sightings on that day. Everywhere I went, there was my Kingfisher, though it turns out there are at least two Kingfishers at Pt Defiance, unless this trickster has learned how to project an image of himself, not entirely impossible considering the frustration he has caused me in my attempts to get a decent shot.

I actually ended up getting the best shots of him at a pond in Pt. Defiance where I’ve never seen one before. Apparently upset I had shifted my photographic focus to the beautiful Widgeons, this Kingfisher loudly announced himself by whizzing past my head and alighting in a nearby tree for a few seconds before flashing off to a more distant tree, obviously trying to sucker me into chasing him rather than take pictures of the ducks. After a day of aggravation, I was having none of it and stayed put.

Though this is a closeup rather than the complete print, I’m sure this is the best picture of a Kingfisher I’ve gotten so far:

Sometimes you just have to wait for mountain to come to you.

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