A hard day for the kingfisher

I have been watching this bird, which turns out to be a Belted Kingfisher, much of the morning. I can't get close enough to get a photo, but a picture I found on the Cornell Ornithology Lab website portrays her perfectly.

Cornell  Ornithology Photo

It is unusually raw, cold and windy here today. But the bird continues to work. Sometimes perched, feathers puffed up, on the weather vane; sometimes on a piling; often skimming inches off the river's surface, always looking for something -- presumably something to eat.

She is noisy too. She has a rattling, chortling, officious kind of call, issued both at rest and in flight. I can see only one of these birds around our dock, so maybe this one is seeking a mate or broadcasting a warning.

Anyway, witnessing this bird's work ethic in action made me feel more than a little guilty. Though the temperature is only in the 40s, cold, wet, windy weather slows me to lethargy.

But bird-driven shame finally propelled me to boat work.  I winterized Ms. Bettencourt's pressure water system.

This did not require a lot of effort. Just disconnect and shunt the water heater's in and out water lines and drain the water heater tank.

Then use the pressure water system pump to drain the bow tank. With the tank empty, disconnect the water system feed hose and stick it into a jug of RV antifreeze.

Turn on the pump to distribute the antifreeze through water lines, faucets and the fresh water head plumbing. Turn off the pump and close the drain cock under the sink.

Ms. Bettencourt is now ready for the whatever winter weather happens around here. If the temps get into the mid-20s, I'll hang  a light bulb in the engine box. But that is not needed now.


The bird, meanwhile, is still skimming around, nabbing an occasional minnow and making a hell of a racket. According to the bird book, when her day is done she will go home to a burrow in the riverbank.

Though it has been suggested that I make a start on Ms. Bettencourt's new curtains, I'm headed back to the rocking chair by the hearth and the gas logs. I was sitting there earlier, reading a novel, when I  happened to look out the window and see that bird.

She's still working. I'm not.