March 6, 2011
White-Fronted Bee-Eater in Kruger National Park, South Africa

On our fifth full day in Kruger National Park, South Africa, we headed down by the Olifants Rest Camp which isn't too far from the Letaba Rest Camp where we were staying. There was a nice cloud layer that let us photograph until the early afternoon. We found some white-fronted bee-eaters on a good perch by the Olifants River causeway. I took portrait images of them until I was satisfied, then I started to work on flight shots. Bee-eaters routinely return to their favorite perch after going out to hunt, so it's rather easy to get images of them coming in to land. I took off the 1.4x tele-extender to give me a bit of breathing room around the landing perch and then prefocused on the perch. As a bee-eater started to land, I fired away. In the image above, I was fortunate to have another bee-eater already perched when one flew in.