Photographing Kingfishers in Flight 



By UWIGHT FRANKLIN. New York City 



With iihotographs by the author 



FOR a long time it had been my great desire to secure a complete set of 

 l)ictures showing a Kingfisher in the act of bringing food to its young. 

 To my knowledge, this had never been accomplished. Needless to 

 say, it is not an easy proposition. 



I am indebted to Mr. Howard Cleaves, of Prince's Bay, Staten Island, 

 for accompanying and introducing me to the spot where, in a sand-bank, 

 the birds were nesting. The hole was located about fifty feet from the tide- 

 line of Prince's Bay, 

 Staten Island, and was 

 about fifteen feet from 

 the water's edge. About 

 four feet below the hole, 

 the bank sloped very 

 gradually, so that we 

 w-ere enabled to set up 

 our tripod cameras and 

 bird-blinds. The latter 

 were green umbrella 

 photographic -blinds, 

 copied after the one 

 described and recom- 

 mended by Mr. Chap- 

 man. 



I stepped into m}- 

 bhnd, focused my cam- 

 era, set the shutter, and 

 Avaited for the bird's 

 appearance, knowing 

 they were not far away, 

 keeping an eye on the 

 hole through an open- 

 ing in the blind above 

 the camera. 



Presently the famil- 

 iar rattle was heard in 

 the distance, gradually growing louder as the bird came nearer. There was a 

 flash of blue and white, and the bird had returned with a fish in its beak. 



I immediately snapped the shutter and, at the sound, the bird whirled, 

 flew away, still retaining the fish. It soon returned, however, and thereafter 



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