Kingfishers

Telling a story is not one of my strengths. After all, I’m a geek! That being said, I’ve been trying for years to get a picture of a Belted Kingfisher. More often than not, I’d hear one instead of seeing it. Their call is much like a loud rattle or chatter and by the time I’d hear one, it would often be flying away from me. If I saw one poised to go head first into the water after its prey, it was generally on an electric line which is a rotten prop for any bird picture. When I bird Woodbridge Rd (outside of Lodi, CA), I’m generally looking for Sandhill Cranes but kingfishers are also on my mind since I’ve always either heard of seen them there.

During my last visit to Woodbridge Rd, I saw a lovely female kingfisher propped on the end of a PVC pipe near the end of the road. Her picture is above. After turning around and going about ¼ mile past the female, I started watching two cranes rather intently and was hoping they’d come closer to the side of the road. I also heard the calls of the kingfishers but couldn’t’ locate them. One of the cranes kept looking up and calling even though there were no other cranes flying above it. Below is a composite of that crane looking up and calling. I took the shots after realizing that the crane was yakking at two kingfishers that were chasing one another in a big race track in the air right above it. Eventually one would break out of the circle and rest on electric line right above me and then the mad chase would resume. After watching them for about 30 minutes and wondering if this was some kind of mating ritual, one of the kingfishers perched on a pipe and threw up. I’m aware that this is not the most appealing shot but it proved to be educational since I later found out that kingfishers expel pellets just like owls only theirs are mostly fish bones. Shortly after that he (I was finally able to ID one of them) moved to a rusty pipe. He started yelling, then took on a sleek attack appearance and then turned in another direction. He kept up this routine. I finally saw the other kingfisher land about 20 feet from him and realized it was a male also. I must have been watching some territorial fighting over the little miss down the road who was probably enjoying her fish bon-bons while the boys did their thing. The pipe dance continued along with the other bird charging the one on the pipe. What a sight. I just wish I had gotten better shots.