Thought I'd give Mr. Kingfisher his own posting away from
the heron thread.

One winter a Kingfisher showed up at my pond and took advantage
of the aspen tree next to the pond as a launching pad from which to
purloin fish.
ak!!
Put in a fake plastic fish anchored to a rock. Mr. Kingfisher showed
up for his afternoon snack. Zoom - into the water he went but this
time
he came out without a fish! I could tell he had gone for the fake
fish.
He shook himself off, chattered about it a bit and in he went again.
Out again and no fish! Well, now he was good and mad! He bounced
around on the branches, talked himself into another attempt and in
he went. Out again and still no fish! You've never seen a wetter or
madder
bird. All in all, he dove in six times that day trying to get the
dratted
fake fish out of the pond. All six times he came back out with an
empty beak. I *almost* felt sorry for him...

k :-)