Sometimes the wild animals just are too far or other conditions conspire to limit the quality of one’s photographic work.

We spent at least an hour at the No-name pond the other evening. We walked to the pond’s edge and surprised a heron, who immediately flew away from us to the other side of the pond, about 150 yards away. We sat down and waited. And waited. Murphy was cooperating and lying in the grass where the bird could not see him.

Then a kingfisher showed up. I had seen him before but I wasn’t ready. He ended up being quite animated but always just out of range. I took shots but nothing really came into focus, literally. I provide these images just to document there was a kingfisher and he was actually fishing.

The heron? Yes. He stayed at the other end of the pond the entire time. He moved about, back and forth, but never closer.

Below is the best shot I could do.

These images are inspired by some great photos referred to me from brother Tom. These were incredible still and moving images of ospreys and kingfishers. It was noted that the photographers had spent hundreds of hours over uncounted days getting the fabulous shots. So, these pictures are what you get if you only have a hour to spend on the task. Ha!