Mention honorable dans la catégorie « Photographie Animalière »

With a white belly, a black-and-white dotted plumage and a black beak, the pied kingfisher is a natural object for monochrome photography.

I was delighted to encounter a quartet of pied kingfishers in a small winter puddle, which comes to life every year after heavy rains and dries up in summer. They rested on two wooden perches, set up by an avid bird photographer, and sat motionless for a very long time. But every once in a while a malicious, though not physically harmful, melee flared up. The major bone of contention was perching privileges. One of the perches was a bit thicker, and could better serve as a jumping board and dinner table.

When hunger struck, they flew off to a nearby beach to hunt for fish in the Mediterranean. They brought their catch back to the pond, killed and swallowed it in one swoop. After the meal, the kingfishers routinely dived into the water to wash themselves.

Observing them for several weeks, I was struck by how tough, tenacious and ingenious a pied kingfisher had to be in order to survive. Luckily, a secluded winter puddle in central Israel, designated officially as a municipal park, offers them a relatively safe enclave. But water in the puddle is constantly dwindling, and so are their prospects of outliving our encroachment on their habitats in less hospitable environments.

I present these pictures to illustrate how fragile - and entwined with our own - is their world, hoping to “infect” others with my enthusiasm and concerns.

Preparing this series enriched me with many blissful moments. Just before sunset, on a cold winter afternoon, a lone kingfisher ate its last supper, dived and emerged majestically from the water, and took flight to roost in a hidden communal site - leaving me, the fascinated photographer, utterly dazzled.