Watching for Breakfast

It's been like homecoming week on the West Bay Walkway this last few days. Shoreline residents I haven't seen all summer are suddenly reappearing in their old haunts. Above is a Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) perched high above Sailor's Cove in the rigging of a sailboat.

Westbay Wildlife

While I sort out some more photos of the recent Thetis Lake excursion here's a few more birds to add to the roll call of wildlife I've seen on the West Bay Walkway. Above is another shot of the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). I see this bird almost every morning but he is generally perched high in a tree overlooking the water. And usually by the time I get all the gear out and ready he has spied his next meal and gone off to dive-bomb it. He has a very distinctive call that I now recognize, described in Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds as "a loud high rattle." This means I see him much more often since his call alerts me to his location. To the left is a Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), a diving duck that is wintering in these coastal waters along with the Hooded Mergansers and the Buffleheads.

Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)

I mentioned the other day when I posted the photo of the Downy Woodpecker that I had been a stalking him for a long time. Here is another difficult-to-photograph bird that shares the same part of the West Bay Walkway, the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). I see this bird almost every time I am down there but it is usually so busy fishing that I generally end up with a series of shots like this. He (or she, I'm not sure) takes off from his perch (left above), then hovers about 20 feet above the water for a few seconds, then dives (right below), usually emerging with a little fish wiggling in that powerful beak, and skims away just above the surface to another perch.