Not much action on our pond this fall. The gadwalls and ring-necks have left for greener ponds, leaving a couple of bufflehead pairs and a couple of mallard pairs. This weekend, a kingfisher spent an hour or so at our end, flitting from tree to tree and occasionally diving into the water, to no avail that I detected.
There are ~90 species of kingfisher; most are stocky, medium-sized, brightly colored birds, including the Kookaburra. Along the American Pacific Coast, the Belted Kingfisher is indigenous. It is classified as a water kingfisher, one of three families. I have observed them from Newport Bay in SoCal to the northern Puget Sound. Their song is a loud, mechanical rattle, like the ratchet mechanism on a large fishing reel.
They are somewhat skittish, hard to get close to. These shots were from around 30 yards to 50 yards away on a gray day, a tough assignment for my hand-held 400mm f5.6 lens. This bird landed twice in the grand fir alongside our rear deck, but I was unable to get outside without causing him to fly away
No comments:
Post a Comment