As usual my friends the Kingfishers are busy feeding young. From my photo blind I can hear the little ones calling whenever the female leaves the nest for too long.
The female seems to be the more proficient of the two adults when it comes to hunting. She can make four or five successful trips during the hours they are active compared to the males two or three.
Her hunting was interrupted briefly last Saturday morning. Normally when she returns to the nest with food she stops to quickly check out the pond before flying into the woods. On this occasion she sat motionless, and looking nervous for quite some time before disappearing into the trees.
She had obviously noticed the large Heron sitting in a tree over the path she needed to travel back to the nest. I didn't see him until he spread his wings to lift off.
When he came off his perch he dropped only slightly before his large sweeping wing beats leveled his flight and he half flew, half glided the length of pond landing on the lowest point of the bank.
After only about a minute he flew back across the pond and landed on the bank almost directly below the tree he had been perched in. He hunted there for several minutes and then started flying around the pond, landing in different locations to fish.
He stayed for the better part of an hour which I was very happy about. My experiences with Herons in the past has been that they are extremely shy and will disappear if they notice even the slightest hint of a person or movement of a blind.
My furry beaver friend also showed himself Saturday morning. I hadn't seen him in so long I was beginning to think he had packed up house and moved away.
I first saw him moving slowly though the overhanging branches directly across the pond from me. He climbed up onto them and chewed on a small branch for a few minutes.
I'm pretty sure he saw me moving my camera to get a better view of him. He looked right at me and quickly slipped into the water. He swam towards me for a short distance then went back and forth almost like he was trying to decide what to do before diving.
He resurfaced in the center of the pond then dove again. I could see the top of the water moving as he swan right towards me. When he got closer I could see him swimming in the shallower water. He got so close I lost sight of him behind the trees that make up the left side of my blind. I assume he disappeared under the bank where I was sitting. At least I know for sure now that my blind is indeed almost right on top of his den.
While I didn't have a lot of time to spend at the pond last week the time I did spend there was great. As usual each visit offered something new to discover and observe.
Have a great one and get outside! Its a wonderful world!
Kevin
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