Wildlife : Birdwatching - 1563 🐦

🦉 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

Every year a pair of kingfishers nest in the same place. In a ravine where a small stream flows, on the sides there are loose clay cliffs. It is in these cliffs that these wonderful birds dig holes.

A large river flows nearby and bushes grow along the shore. In these places, kingfishers hunt, or rather fish. But in the spring, these places cannot be approached because of the high water level. But by mid-July, the water level drops, the fledglings grow up, and you can reach the places where parents teach their children to fish on their own.