After a run of great weather the chill of fall is beginning to settle in. The trees are starting to turn and once again the birds around the pond seem to be very busy preparing for the inevitable coming of winter.

Large numbers of songbirds seem to be passing through. Smaller groups make their way around the waters edge leap-frogging each other as they feed and harass larger birds. They never seem to sit still for more than a second or two so they are very difficult to photograph. Drives me nuts trying to focus on them when they briefly land in the tangles of cedar branches near my photo blind.

No matter how much time I spend at the pond the Kingfishers always seem to be one of my favorite aimals to watch. Their plumage and inability to remain quiet for long make them easy to find and they are always busy doing something.

The male that calls the pond home was around a lot today and while he seemed to be accustomed to the rain showers that were passing through didn’t appear to enjoy them. The large moth, some sort of underwing variety, that fell into the water during one downpour certainly didn't like them.

Of course the thing he really didn’t like was the young Kingfisher that took up a perch in one of the trees across the pond. When it first showed up the older bird got so loud I would have sworn that someone was plucking out his tail feathers. All the noise didn’t seem to affect the younger bird though. It stayed put for fifteen or twenty minutes before disappearing into the woods.

In one of my previous posts I asked if anyone knew what had made the hole in the picture above. Since I know the suspense has been killing many of you (wink, wink) ....

While almost every guess was for some sort of furbearing animal it is actually a Kingfisher burrow. I only found it after I did some research on their nesting habits. I photographed it just this one time since I didn’t want to disturb them while they were using it. Even though the young fledged several weeks ago the mature birds still seem to check on the burrow almost every time they are around.

It is indeed a great season to be outside. There is nothing like a hour or so of quiet time in the great outdoors to help relieve a little stress.

Have a great one and please leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my blog!

Kevin