László Novák - Kingfisher, Balatonalmadi, Hungary

6 th of January… is it really the 1st day?
Should have been. But my work for taking images of fishing kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) started two months ago, when I had to collect a few kilos of very small fish. Then find a place where it would be possible to keep them, and with the possibility of staying alive for a long time.
Then I had nothing else except to wait for the cold weather. When the Lake Balaton is frozen and the whole surface is covered with ice, my time has arrived. The kingfishers are not able to catch the fish anymore. If they do not want to die from hunger they need to find new fishing spots. These spots are generally rivers, channels, or little streams. My favourite one (GPS N47 03′44,7″ E018 01′55,8″) is not far from my living place. Here I can get close and watch this unique bird while it is fishing.

Since ice has covered the lake for one week, I started to feed one kingfisher here at my channel. It is under a little bridge that is easy to reach twice or three times a day. I start this work knowing that I have this task until the ice melts.
One male bird has accustomed to my feeding place, and I admired its fishing with the company of my family. That’s a top experience when the little bird comes out of the water.
Today my son Adam helped me to install the system, including a 300 mm lens and five fast firing flashes. For taking pictures I first used manual exposure instead of light gate exposure.
After having the first images, I realised some things in the photo kit need to be repaired. After this, I will continue this work in the following days to get more images.

László Novák - Balatonalmadi 6th of January 2009

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