End of Summer

Killdeer

Great Blue Heron

pictures by cindyzlogic

It's the end of Summer in Kansas. The Spring birds, like Robins, must have migrated South. My husband and I took one of our Grand-daughters to a local lake to enjoy the last day of Summer for her. She would be starting school on Monday. The lake is known as a good birding spot as well. I saw a couple of different Terns, I think one was a Least Tern. I saw it through small binoculars, it looked to have a black & white striped head. It was perched on a buoy. Another larger Tern flew at it and took the Least Tern's spot on the buoy. It looked to have an all black cap. I checked the field guide and can only deduce it was a Forster's Tern. We saw 3 Great Blue Heron's, several Canadian Geese, and lots of Killdeer. I love these little Plovers! An hour before sunset there were a dozen or so Killdeer together. They would stand in a certain way, then bob their heads like they were hiccupping. They seemed to be doing some sort of ritual of which I would have no clue.

Lastly, and the most exciting for us, was finding a Belted Kingfisher. I took some pictures, but he was too far away for a decent photo with my camera. We watched him for quite some time. When we first spotted him he had a fish in his beak. It took him awhile to work on swallowing it. Then he dived into the water about 4 more times, but came up empty. He then flew closer and perched on some power lines. He seemingly came closer to check us out. We also got a chance to hear his call...very different. We have never seen one of these birds before!