A Kingfisher and His Fishing Line

Belted Kingfisher looking for his next spot to strike the water and make a catch

All winter my brother in law Jordan and I have been trying to catch a shot of a Kingfisher. We have encountered them in the past, but it was never quite the right shot. They were too far away, the lighting wasn’t right, or we couldn’t catch the fast things in focus.

Belted Kingfisher calling

A couple of weeks ago while on a walk along the Boise river with my girlfriend I happened to see one at the very end of our walk, perched up on a branch next to a stranded fishing line. Very poetic!

The cherry on top of the encounter was getting one shot of him diving in focus with the fishing line to boot! A fun way to end a walk!

Total Lunar Eclipse March 2025

The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes
Joel 2:31

Pi day blood moon! 4 photo HDR image merged in Lightroom. I thought it was going to be clouded over but about 20 minutes before totality the clouds cleared! I got a great view of it through my Nikon D800 and Nikon 200-500mm f5.6 as well as my 20 x 80 astronomy binoculars!

Observing/imaging from my apartment balcony

Some information on yesterday’s early morning blood moon from NASA’s APOD:

On March 14 the Moon was Full. In an appropriate celebration of Pi day, that put the Moon 3.14 radians (180 degrees) in ecliptic longitude from the Sun in planet Earth’s sky. As a bonus for fans of Pi and the night sky, on that date the Moon also passed directly through Earth’s umbral shadow in a total lunar eclipse. In clear skies, the colors of an eclipsed Moon can be vivid. Reflecting the deeply reddened sunlight scattered into Earth’s shadow.