We encountered a Pied Kingfisher hunt today and here's the full story.
Nothing was going to keep us away from the beach today. We have always visited a deserted part of the beach and we knew that there would be no other people, so we would not endanger anyone. After some 60 plus days of lockdown that was downgraded to level 3 today, we saw no reason not to visit the beach.
Alcohol was also unbanned today and the cops had their hands full with the very long queues of people at the bottle stores, so why would they worry about two sober people on an isolated beach.
Just as well we went, come look at this hunt!
Oh yeah, this guy was very proud with that big fish!
Sitting on a high pole mounted with a security camera with his catch!
Let's watch his hunt for that fish!
Pied Kingfisher's are of the few bird species that can hover in the same position.
This excited the first helicopter designers, as they copied the design.
Ever higher he rose above the shallows of the ocean!
Here you can see the dizzying heights that they can rise to and needless to say that their eyesight is exceptionally sharp!
Oh that dive is so fast that I had no hope of getting it on camera, but at least I got his plunge into the water.
Now realize here that I was on my extended zoom and to retract, or extend the zoom to catch his dive is almost impossible.
He got something, but his wings covered it in flight and I had to wait for him to turn, as I knew where he was going!
Problem was that the seagulls at times tried to catch him in order to get his fish, but he was way too fast for them.
I took some photos of a seagull chasing him, but this post will be too long if I also include the photos.
Save it to say that the seagulls should rather think about taking up the game of golf, instead of trying to catch a racing kingfisher hahaha.
Yep! As he turned there it was! He got himself a fish!
Safely he arrived back at the post with the fish that you saw in the first 3 photos of this post!
So, it was late afternoon and after they had eaten the fish, they dived down into the fresh water of a river inlet to rinse the sea salt off their bodies!
They even had time to play with each other, to the amazement of the Egyptian goose nearby!
Finally, just a shot here of one of my favorite places, the beach and the ocean!
Here is some information about this "Olde World Bird"
"The pied kingfisher was one of the many bird species originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, who noted that it lived in Persia and Egypt. He named it Alcedo rudis. The German naturalist Friedrich Boie erected the genus Ceryle in 1828. The name is from classical Greek kērulos, an unidentified and probably mythical bird mentioned by Aristotle and other authors. The specific epithet rudis is Latin for "wild" or "rude".
"The pied kingfisher is the only member of the genus Ceryle. Molecular analysis shows it is an early offshoot of the lineage that gave rise to American kingfishers of the genus Chloroceryle. The pied kingfisher was initially believed to be descended from an ancestral American green kingfisher which crossed the Atlantic Ocean about one million years ago. A more recent suggestion is that the pied kingfisher and the American green kingfishers are derived from an Old World species, with the pied kingfisher or its ancestor losing the metallic colouration afterwards".
Source
What a wonderful feeling is to feel the soft beach sand between our toes. To hear the sound of the ocean and the crash of the waves.
Sounds that opens the curtains of ones mind and the sea air with it's salty taste cleanses ones soul.
That way that it was, is and will continue to be into the millennia.
Our beautiful untamable ocean, a gift to all mankind!
Note: All photos are my own and this is an original post.
Bird specie information was duly cited with the source.
Camera used: Canon Powershot SX60HS
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