A Kingfisher's Blind Spot

The belted kingfisher is a bird that I regularly see and hear every morning at Lakeside Park. They give off flashes of white from their flight feathers that contrast against the shaded trees on the far bank of Shoemaker Lake, as they swoop from perch to perch,. They call when they approach anywhere near, warning others that I'm there.

I feel at times that they are mocking me... I see you!

Their eyesight is so keen that it is almost impossible to get close enough for a photo, from any angle.

The only time I have been able to photograph them was when the fledglings appeared last year and had not quite developed their sense of what to be aware of, https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/07/kingfishers-at-last.html.

I was quite happily photographing bumblebees and sweat bees, as they busily worked on a group of buttonbush (Cephalanthus Occidentalis) shrubs on the sunny side of Shoemaker Lake when I first heard the belted kingfisher this morning.

The kingfisher was a little further up the lake and I thought it worth the effort to try for a photo.

Obviously, the kingfisher flew away to the opposite side of the lake long before I could get anywhere near to being in range, but then it flew back over the lake, very close to where I had been taking photos of the bees.

The belted kingfisher perched on the, "keep your dogs on a leash" sign in the bottom corner of the lake. I snapped a few photos from behind the bushes. I knew that was as close as the kingfisher would let me get.

The kingfisher then flew over to a dead tree stump near the very base of the lake.

I'd already had a full morning and decided to give up on my pursuit of a better kingfisher photo. I started walking back around the path to my car, but as my car was parked so close to where the kingfisher was, maybe I should give it just one more try before heading home.

I approached as stealthily as I could from the path. I noticed the kingfisher as it flew up high into the tree beside the bench. I was below and behind the kingfisher's location. I couldn't see it, but I knew near enough where it was and kept my eye on that location, watching for the usual fly off and humiliating call. I snuck up to the tree and then edged around the side of its trunk. There was unusually no movement, no calling out from the kingfisher. Perhaps the kingfisher does have a blind spot, I thought.

There was nothing I could do but wait for the belted kingfisher to make a move, and it did. It glided down from its perch and my first impression was, oh no, spotted again! But the kingfisher paused in mid-flight, it hadn't seen me yet, it had its eyes fixed on something in the water.

The belted kingfisher hovered in mid-air, beautifully lit between the shadows of the trees, just long enough for these few photos.

For the first and probably only time, I was able to sneak up on a belted kingfisher.

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