Stalking the Kingfisher, Part 1

KINGFISHER. The name seems mythical, a character from an Arthurian tale, an exceptionalist in a constrained world.

Belted Kingfisher

A Kingfisher arrives and departs with a disdainful scolding sound, usually near water. You know by its voice that it's operating nearby even when screened by the woods.

The far side of the quarry

A Kingfisher occasionally perches on the rim of the quarry at Halibut Point. It might secret itself in a tree by one of the small ponds.

Taking flight

An unobtrusive observer hears it shriek in the distance, hover, and plunge for a minnow near the water surface. But Kingfishers are notoriously difficult to photograph. They're wary and watchful from their promontories.

Fleeing in diameters

Kingfishers don't just move. They cross the quarry diametrically, the direct route, to keep as much distance from people as possible. Your long, furtive perimeter reconnoiter to its last position usually ends with an eerie, dismissive scolding as it flies away on detecting the stalker.

The Devil Bird

After many near misses I began calling it the Devil Bird. I thought of it taking perverse pleasure at my frustration as it winged away with its unearthly rattle.

The regal bird

I became obsessed with the possibility of photographing this elusive malapert. I hid behind a cedar tree while my friend Don went around the quarry to prompt it my way. It landed within a few feet of my blind! A slight movement on my part put the bird to flight squawking furiously. No trophy that day.

Despite, and partly because of its incalcitrant nature; as well as it's improbable physique and lifestyle; my determination to portray it fully developed into a quest.

Underneath it all is the mesmerizing beauty of the bird.

To be continued.

Mouths to Feed

Some species of newborn birds leave the nest almost immediately to forage on their own, often with at least temporary supervision and protection from their parents.

Common Eider ducklings at the tideline, Halibut Point

They are able to find their own food immediately or at a very young age,

A long-legged Piping Plover chick on the dunes at Plum Island

swimming or running precociously before they are able to fly.

Eastern Phoebe at the nest

Nest-raised birds come into the world with the advantage of a more secure nursery, but their parents are pressed hard to satisfy their voracious appetites from the moment the youngsters break out of their shells.

Green Heron collecting minnows

The feeding program for nesting birds often moves quickly from regurgitated, partially digested baby food to captured prey brought back whole for the fledglings.

Brown Thrasher with insect ready for delivery

It's a race against time and danger to get those juveniles independently doing what birds do best, flying free.

Northern Mockingbird

Parents may take surreptitious routes with provisions for their concealed families.

Osprey passing Halibut Point,
carrying home a fish

Osprey sometimes hunt miles away from their estuary nesting sites and bring back whole fish for the juveniles to butcher.

Cardinal carrying a dragonfly

Herbivorous birds may need to supply animal-based proteins from outside the parents' usual diet at some point in the chicks' development.

Northern Flicker parent and child this week,

the youngster siphoning food from its parent's throat.

Hungry fledglings may continue to receive supplemental meals from adults after outgrowing cramped space in the nest.

Barn Swallows on the quarry rim

This Barn Swallow giving insect hunting lessons to its brood keeps their energy up with occasional morsels delivered on the wing into their gaping mouths..

Common Tern adult and juvenile

A young tern still learning to fend for itself is revived on an expedition far from its island home by a watchful parent.

These incidents of survival versatility give snapshots into the wonders of the natural world.

 

The Overlook at Halibut Point in mid-June

When Coreopsis blooms alongside the grout pile, an already spectacular Overlook panorama gets re-minted in gold.

A Goldfinch perched above the Overlook...

Just then a congregation of Goldfinches arrives to further embellish the scene.

dives to the ground...

The birds animate the moors with their brilliant plumage and gymnastic foraging.

to forage in the flowers

They've come looking for seeds that have ripened on the earliest-blooming plants, while the inflorescence rolls on.

The Coreopsis carpet

The rocky scree of quarry cast-offs seems like an unlikely place for such profusion. Vegetative colonization and soil-building have proceeded hand-in-hand over the century since granite mining ceased here.

An Eastern Calligrapher Flower Fly and Tube-tailed Thrips

An advancing web of life has populated the formerly sterile grout dump that became the Overlook.

Spot-winged Glider above Coreopsis

Dragonflies seem to be dashing over gold coins on the terrain below.

Long Legs

Although bird life is in a quiet season at Halibut Pont, we walk expectantly most mornings with the belief that anything might happen, and why not to us?

A bird crossing the quarry

One day this week a flying silhouette carried promise of novelty and adventure. 

Greater Yellowlegs

A long-legged bird landed far down the rim of the quarry. We could tell it was a Greater Yellowlegs, a wader of marshes and estuaries that is a rarity here. There was a sporting chance of sneaking up behind a cedar tree and photographing it through the branches. I got one nice close-up before it took off in a tirade of squeaky alarm calls, chew-chew-chew.

Great Blue Herons

From up in the sky came a guttural squawking as a pair of Great Blue Herons considered landing at the quarry, their long legs trailing at the ready.

Green Heron

Next came the croak of a Green Heron flying in to the water's edge with a raspy skeow call, triply repeated. In past years it has been the most regular of the long-legged set, nesting in quarry-side trees. It's absence this season has been a loss to the Park ambience, though a relief to the minnow population.

Balletic preening

During its brief visit the Green Heron reprised graceful photogenic poses but didn't settle in for a traditional fishing vigil.

Yellowlegs through the foliage

We pursued the Greater Yellowlegs to a shrouded spot on the other side of the quarry. The foliage that shielded our stealthy approach obscured the view until the last moment but added a pleasing vignette to the portrait. It was a serendipitous touch on a morning of chances.

A Pea Tree

 

Pea flowers above the quarry

Visitors to Halibut Point last week encountered a spectacular view of the Babson Farm Quarry, framed in pea flowers. 

The white blossoms, distinctly pea-like and with crimson centers, hung in racemes from black locust trees. Fortunately some were displayed at eye level for close appreciation.

A blooming black locust tree, Robinia pseudo-acacia,
in front of the Visitors Center

The flowers covered the towering tree canopies in a profusion of petals.

A pine tree overshadowed by locusts

Since they have similar flowers, could those lofty trees indeed be legumes, akin to sweet peas and clover? I reread a ten year old Note from Halibut Point, The Pea Family.

Bird's foot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus

Yes, the botanical line is clear, if not the easy logic.

Bird's foot trefoil in the meadow

Legumes in general have advantages as pioneer plants in poor soil areas such as existed in re-vegetation of the quarry terrain, and in parts of the recent landscape renovation of the State Park.

Purple crown vetch, Securigera varia

As nitrogen fixers the legumes are able to improve growing conditions not only for themselves but the succession of plants that coexist with or follow them.

Black locust garland

The brief flowering of locust trees is an event worth marking on June's calendar. Then the fallen blossoms carpet Park paths like the aftermath of a tickertape parade.

Second Annual Plum Island Safari

 

Common Terns

It's been only nine months since I reported on my last expedition to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, and began to think about returning to that magical realm. Yesterday the freshness of June and of the nesting season under way pulled irresistibly for a Second Annual Plum Island Safari.

Killdeer

The Refuge opens to visitors at sunrise. That's when you want to arrive to enjoy active wildlife in the lustrous early light.

Snowy Egret and Gadwall at the Salt Pannes

At 6:00am cars were lined up along the road beside the Salt Pannes. Birders with scopes and cameras stood reverentially along the edge of the marsh with a panoramic view of tidal ponds, meadows, and mudflats. These regulars resembled a congregation in a religious sanctuary.

Eurasian Wigeon

Newcomers were greeted with whispered reports of rarities. "The Nelson's Sparrow is singing in the grass." "A Wilson's Phalarope stopped by for a minute." "Can you believe a Eurasian Wigeon here?"

Black-necked Stilt and Least Sandpipers

The most exotic sighting was a pair of Black-necked Stilts, a first occurrence in Massachusetts for nearly everyone present.

Black-necked Stilt probing for invertebrates

Its elegant markings and coral-colored legs, impossibly thread-like, drew and held an appreciative audience.

The Stilt takes flight

Its lanky proportions from beak to toes enabled the Stilt to search deep into the mudflats for tiny organisms that would elude most predators.

Snowy Egret

Many other birds with similar proportions hunt for fish in shallow water.

Least Tern

The dunes of Sandy Point on the southern tip of Plum Island give certain shoreline birds vital but improbable habitat for procreation.

Piping Plover adult

Piping Plovers are the most celebrated species in residence. Both the refuge managers and the public seem well attuned to safeguarding their nesting grounds.

An admiring photographer shooting through the ropes

It takes sharp eyes to locate the well-camouflaged Plovers.

Piping Plover chick

Chicks are essentially on their own after hatching. They seem to be born with fully developed legs and dart about swiftly while foraging. Their downy plumage blends perfectly with the sand.

  

Purple Martins

At Refuge headquarters the staff maintains an extensive array of 'gourds' as Purple Martin nesting boxes. These streamlined swallow relatives provide another arena of entertainment as they swoop through the air pursuing insects.

Glossy Ibis

A final captivating sight awaited us on the way home near the Essex-Ipswich town line, where Glossy Ibises feed in damp meadows. Their coloring and silhouette put a perfect cap on the fantastic nature of this domestic safari.