I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
A kingfisher flies
in the ricochet manner
across the water.
Its motions when on wing consist of a Series of flaps,
about five or six in number, followed by a direct glide,
without any apparent undulation.
It moves in the same way when flying closely over the water.
If, in the course of such excursions, the bird passes over a small pool,
it suddenly checks itself in its career, poises itself in the air,
like a Sparrow Hawk or Kestril, and inspects the water beneath,
to discover whether there may be fishes in it suitable to its taste.
Should it find this to be the case, it continues poised for a few seconds,
dashes spirally headlong into the water, seizes a fish,
and alights on the nearest tree or stump,
where it swallows its prey in a moment . . .
It is not unusual to hear the hard, rapid, rattling notes of our Kingfisher,
even amongst the murmuring cascades of our higher mountains.
When the bird is found in such sequestered situations,
well may the angler be assured that trout is abundant.
April 1. A kingfisher seen and heard. April 1, 1860
April 10. See a kingfisher flying very low, in the ricochet manner, across the water. April 10, 1859
April 11. Saw a kingfisher on a tree over the water. Does not its arrival mark some new movement in its finny prey? He is the bright buoy that betrays it! April 11, 1856
April 15. See and hear a kingfisher—do they not come with the smooth waters of April? — hurrying over the meadow as if on urgent business. April 15, 1855
April 17. See several kingfishers. April 17, 1858
April 22. The bluish band on the breast of the kingfisher leaves the pure white beneath in the form of a heart. April 22, 1855
April 23. A kingfisher with his crack, — cr-r-r-rack. April 23, 1854
April 24. The kingfisher flies with a crack cr-r-r-ack and a limping or flitting flight from tree to tree before us, and finally, after a third of a mile, circles round to our rear. He sits rather low over the water. Now that he has come I suppose that the fishes on which he preys rise within reach. April 24, 1854
April 25. Saw the first kingfisher, and heard his most unmusical note. April 25, 1852
April 30. Hear a kingfisher at Goose Pond. April 30, 1857
May 10. Above the railroad bridge I see a kingfisher twice sustain himself in one place, about forty feet above the meadow, by a rapid motion of his wings, somewhat like a devil's-needle, not progressing an inch, apparently over a fish. May 10, 1854
June 6. Hear of a kingfisher's nest, just found in a sand bank behind Abner Buttrick's, with six fresh eggs, of which I have one. The boy said it was six or seven feet deep in the bank. June 6, 1859
June 9. The air is now full of shad-flies, and there is an incessant sound made by the fishes leaping for their evening meal, . . .Meanwhile the kingfishers are on the lookout for the fishes as they rise. I see one dive in the twilight and go off uttering his cr-r-ack, cr-r-rack. June 9, 1854
June 12. Scare a kingfisher on a bough over Walden. As he flies off, he hovers two or three times thirty or forty feet above the pond, and at last dives and apparently catches a fish, with which he flies off low over the water to a tree. June 12, 1854
June 16. Examined a kingfisher's nest, — though there is a slight doubt if I found the spot. It was formed singularly like that of the bank swallow, i. e. flat-elliptical, some eight inches, as I remember, in the - largest diameter, and located just like a swallow's, in a sand-bank, some twenty inches below the surface. Could feel nothing in it, but it may have been removed. Have an egg from this. June 16, 1859
July 22. Here is a kingfisher frequenting the Corner Brook Pond. They find out such places. July 22, 1852
June 25. I observe many kingfishers at Walden and on the Assabet, very few on the dark and muddy South Branch. June 25, 1854
July 28. Heard a kingfisher, which had been hovering over the river, plunge forty rods off. July 28, 1858
August 6. The kingfisher is seen hovering steadily over one spot, or hurrying away with a small fish in his mouth, sounding his alarum nevertheless. August 6, 1858
August 22. A kingfisher, with his white collar, darted across the river and alighted on an oak. August 22, 1853
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau The Kingfisher
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2026
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-kingfisher
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