Wildlife : Birdwatching - 1509 🐦

🦉 The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

📚 Alcedo alcedinis, alcyon, or halcedo, halcedinis (lat.) kingfisher; word "hals" in ancient Greek language meant "sea", along with the word thalassa. According to ancient Greek mythology Alcyone (Alcyone), the daughter of the wind god Eol, was the wife of Keix, who drowned due to the wrath of the gods. Alcyone, out of grief, threw herself into the sea, and also died. The gods had mercy and turned the spouses into kingfishers. Looking for her husband, Alcyone calls all the time “Keix! Keix!" and dives, trying to find him in the sea. Alcyone days - two weeks of calm weather around the day winter solstice. During these days, Eol pacified the winds so that Alcyone, in the form of a kingfisher, could hatch chicks in her nest floating on the waves.
📚 atthis (ancient Greek mythology) Attis, a divine youth of extraordinary beauty

These are one of my favorite birds. They arrive around the 20th of May. I always find them in the same place. Namely, on the outskirts of a small forest, near the bank of a large river.

There, on the flooded area from the melted snow, they are sitting on the bushes fishing. And in the ravine, near which clay landslides, they dig holes.

Interestingly, there are always two of them. And for some reason it seems to me that I see the same couple from year to year. Yes, they have offspring every year, but still only two birds fly here.