Have you noticed our recent kingfisher pair at the beaver dam? You’ve probably heard their rattling call if you’ve been down recently. The belted Kingfisher is a jewel of a bird that chooses a perch with a view of the water and swoops down like a bullet to capture a fish with its great beak before flying back up to its perch where it enjoys its labors.
The Cornell birding sight tells me that it is one of the few species where the female is actually more colorful than the male. It is sometimes thought to be the origin of the mythical bird the halcyon who the Greeks believed would create a floating nest at sea during winter solstice, calming the waves with its magical purpose. In fact the Kingfisher nests in holes in the bank so we are very curious whether we will have a family soon in one of the new exposed banks the washed out dams left behind. This should give you an idea of what to look for:
And this should give you an idea of the fishing behavior, this was filmed on the Albion River, but it looks exactly the same on Alhambra Creek!
Halcyon Days
By Walt Whitman – 1819-1892
Not from successful love alone, Nor wealth, nor honor’d middle age, nor victories of politics or war; But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm, As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky, As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame, like freshier, balmier air, As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangs really finish’d and indolent-ripe on the tree, Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all! The brooding and blissful halcyon days!
