Some great opportunities to see interesting birds arise when you are canoeing small rivers and streams. Habitats come and go with the slope, ranging from rapids to slow meanders, beaver ponds to bogs, culminating sometimes in little deltas, where the stream arrives at a lake.

Because the channel is narrow, there are species that you can ëdriveí ahead of you, seeing them several times before they tire of the game and circle back. Many ducks (especially those with young) respond to canoes in this way. Great blue herons also fly ahead at least once or twice before they circle back. Perhaps the best bird to see this way is the belted kingfisher.

About half of this bird is head. The pointed bill is thick and strong, and takes up about a fourth of the birdís length. The weak feet are not used in catching fish. The kingfisher hunts most efficiently from a perch, where it locates prey before it moves. When it hunts from the air, it hovers with exhausting, rapid wingflaps, 15 or 20 feet up, until it sees its chance and dives. It recovers flight awkwardly from the surface of the water, with its burden secured. At the perch again, it kills and eats its prey.

The kingfisherís flight is U-shaped. Capturing your attention with its strident call, it drops dramatically from its perch, but instead of splashing down on some fish, it recovers at the last second and skims ahead, chattering again in case you had not noticed. Nearing its next perch, it calculates the speed it will need and (again at the last second) swoops upward, dumping speed with a vertical approach, and arrives with perfect timing at the branch of its choosing.

The kingfisher never has a problem with this flight pattern, but you probably would not want him in charge of an airliner.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
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