A territorial species, the kingfisher usually stays close to Summer Rest pond, but English says it took months of waiting to get one particular shot. “My best shot of him was prob-ably in August of 2012 when I got two kingfishers locked together,” he says. “I was determined to get a shot like that and I kept going over there and watching them but it took me four months before I finally got the one I wanted to get.” Waiting four months in a mobile hunting blind, sometimes for three hours at a time, English says he probably will not ever be able to get the shot again. “There are a lot of birds I’m still after,” he says. “I mainly get birds in some type of action like flying or fighting rather than birds just sitting on a log or stick … because that is kind of boring.” Instead of camouflage, English says the key to capturing those dynamic images of birds is stealth and stationary posture. “I have gotten pretty good at being still,” English says. “Most of the time you can stand up behind a tree and when you see something just don’t move until you think you can throw the camera up and take a picture.” Like anything, bird photography is mostly about repetition and prac-ticing the skill, he says. “Probably 25 percent of it is being observant, and going out there and doing it, and practicing is the other 75 percent,” he says. “It keeps you moving and keeps you young. I walk at least two miles a day.” English says he could not imag-ine giving up photography. “Not unless I am unable to carry the lens and then I guess I will just ride around in the car and hold it out the window,” he says, half jok-ing. “I just picked up a camera to try it and enjoyed it because you can make an image of anything. It gives you something to look back on when you get older.” Clockwise from top: belted kingfishers, green heron, both on Summer Rest pond; brown pelicans on Motts Channel; black skimmers at the south end of Wrightsville Beach, red-tailed hawk on Airlie Road. Opposite: juvenile great horned owl on Summer Rest Road. 44 march 2014 WBM
2014-3
To see the actual publication please follow the link above