My last bird of 2019: Ringed Kingfisher

My New Years Eve plans started a few days ago when Hank George asked me if I was interested in looking for the Ringed Kingfisher that has been spending the winter at the Quail Valley Golf Course. This isn’t a bird that is typically seen in our area and it is a pretty darn cool bird so of course I was game.

I think the thing that turned Hank on to this bird was a report from Robbin Mallet, who had seen and photographed the bird on Christmas morning so I decided it would be a good idea to see if she had any suggestions on the best way to find the bird. I wasn’t familiar with the area where the bird has been hanging out and any help would be welcome. Robbin was great, she told us all about her experience looking for the kingfisher and eventually finding it. If that wasn’t enough, she offered to meet us at the location and show us around.

Considering the level of excitement of this chase it wasn’t any surprise that we all arrived on location earlier than planned and Robbin gave us all the details; what rarity hunt would be complete without sharing some war stories? While we searched, we were joined by a local resident who had given Robbin the Christmas morning tip that resulted in her getting the bird. He shared some other locations that might be worth checking and left us to our search.

After checking every bit of water, we could find without success we decided to take a break from the kingfisher and try out luck with the Green-tailed Towhee that had been reported at Cullinan Park. Again, Robbin had already seen the towhee a few days before and gave us the scoop on where it was. At Cullinan we ran into my friend Bill Duke who joined our quest for the Green-tailed Towhee. Thanks to the great description we were able to locate the bird almost immediately. Unfortunately, this towhee was true to form and wasn’t interested in posing for a nice photo so we had to settle for photos of it buried in the bushes. Even so, it was great to see the bird we had come for.

We decided that finding the towhee deserved a reward, and we all agreed that a nice lunch at Wataburger would do the trick. After lunch, the three of us headed back to the golf course to check if the kingfisher was around. This time there were golfers on the links so we weren’t able to access “ground zero.” We searched the areas that we could without success and then Hank and I decided to try out luck with another Green-tailed Towhee that had been recently reported at Brazoria NWR. We left Bill at the golf course still searching for the kingfisher; it’s always difficult to know when to walk away and when to stay.

A short time before we reached the refuge, we received a text from Bill, he had seen the bird and was nice enough to include a photo of the location. Well, as you might imagine, our enthusiasm for the towhee was a little diminished but we had already come so far, we had to at least give the towhee a try.

As luck would have it, we immediately found the towhee and again, the towhee was true to form, comfortably tucked in the brush. We tried to wait the bird out but kingfisher fever was getting out of control and we headed back for the golf course.

Upon arrival we searched and searched until our time was gone without any trace of our bird. We had seen some nice birds during the day but I have to admit that we were bummed about missing our bird. We both knew it was a long shot from the start but that’s what happens when you get your hopes up.

Just before we got back to the car, I heard the familiar rattle of a Ringed Kingfisher coming up the creek toward us. The bird flew right past us and landed in a tree on the edge of the pond Robbin had showed us in the morning. Excited, doesn’t begin to describe how we felt. This might not be the best Ringed Kingfisher photo I have ever taken but I think it is the one I was most excited to get.

I thought this was the perfect way to end 2019. We had found a fabulous bird after a challenging search and we wouldn’t have found it without help from several of our friends. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes birding such a fun endeavor.

I’m sure excited to see what 2020 brings!


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Megaceryle torquata