After some TLC, young bird's back at kingfisher village

Kingfishers are hyperactive birds that you never see sitting still for long. Taking a photo of one is almost impossible.

They are on constant patrol along the water's edge, looking for their fish dinners as their name implies. The birds may stop to perch on an overhanging branch for a minute or two before taking off to fly up and down the riverbank again.

They make a clattering racket that announces their arrival and departure.

Because kingfishers never settle down long enough for us to get a good look, it was especially interesting to see a young kingfisher up close at wildlife rehabilitator Pearl Beamer's home in Norfolk recently.

Kingfishers nest in burrows in river banks and cliffs. This little juvenile had jumped from its nest hole in a cliff at Baillio Sand Company on Princess Anne Road in Pungo. The sand embankment, topped with 3 to 4 feet of clay, was created when a road was built for trucks to carry sand up and out of the sand pit, said John Baillio, owner of the sand company.

The critter wasn't quite ready to fly and was in danger of being hit by a sand truck, said Animal Control Officer Sharon Mellott. She went to the rescue and took the youngster and a sibling that died later to the Virginia Beach SPCA, which then turned the kingfisher over to Beamer for a little R&R.

The youngster was not injured, and in about a week, he was flying. Beamer deemed the little guy was ready to be released. She returned him to the sand pit area, where he took off with flying colors.

Not many bodies of water in this area have banks or cliffs where kingfishers can nest. But Mellott found a whole kingfisher village when she went to pick up the critter at the sand company. She describes the nests as "neat little cavities in the wall."

Mellott said she had never seen anything quite like it. The pit with a lake in the middle was probably the size of a football field and for as far as she could see, she felt like she could see nest holes in the cliff walls. The nests are about 5 feet off the ground, and there were "peepholes" every 4 yards or so, Mellott said.

According to the Internet site All About Birds (www.allaboutbirds.org), activities such as the borrow pit, road building and gravel excavations have actually increased the kingfisher's breeding range because they provide suitable habitat for nest building.

The nests slope upward to prevent rainwater from flooding them, and they can be from 1 to 8 feet long, according to All About Birds.

Blue-gray and white with a crest on its head and a long beak, a belted kingfisher could possibly be confused with a blue jay, though blue jays are not denizens of the waterfront and don't hunt for fish for dinner.

Unlike most females in the bird world, the female kingfisher is more colorful than the male. She has rusty flanks and chest band on her white breast while the male is just gray and white, like the little guy in the photo.

READERS' CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Jean Broughton in Morgans Walke sent a photo of a small black ant carrying a giant feather at least five times longer than the ant. See the heavyweight on my blog.

Albert Fedorka sent a photo of a black widow spider that he found on a charcoal bag stored under a grill cover in his yard near Lake Smith. Bob Capria in Great Neck sent photos of insects in his yard, including one of a wasp backing down into a small hole in a tomato stake where it may have been laying eggs in some other bug's hole.

Woody Stephens managed to get a photo of a spotted sandpiper along the water's edge in Thalia. The grayish brown sandpiper with an unusual spotted breast is pretty widespread but not seen often here on the coast.

Marcia Pierce photographed a great egret in a tree along the Kings Grant lake. And Steve Coari sent one of a handsome green heron on the lake near the entrance to Norfolk Botanical Garden. See it in Thursday Beacon's Close Encounter.

Katri Twiford managed to get a great photo of a turkey crossing Muddy Creek Road.

Louise Swenson snapped little green tree frogs, one by her bedroom door near her swimming pool in Southgate and one nestled in the cup of a flower. The little frogs tend to hide in the folds of their bathing suits overnight, Swenson said.

Clare Davis in Larkspur has several cicada killer burrows along her walkway to her house and wonders why the scary looking but harmless wasps have taken up residence in her yard.

Mike and Mitzi Ashe sent a photo of a green snake entwined in their chain-link dog pen fencing in Croatan.

Stuart McCausland sent a close-up of a handsome male hummingbird with a full bright red throat.

Karen Beatty had a real find last week, a Mississippi kite, a small raptor, native to the Deep South, way out of its range at Red Wing Lake Golf Course.

Steve Hewitt photographed a gray fox and a its youngster on a brush pile at the back of the Rosewood Memorial Park.

Tammy Woodell sent some cute photos of baby mockingbirds with their striped breasts in her Pocahontas Village yard.

Connie Fulton found a "mystery" osprey egg in her yard that had fallen and broken open, but there was no nest overhead. "What could possibly steal an osprey egg?" she asked. I wondered about a great horned owl or a crow.