ceryle alcyon

Late yesterday afternoon I took the pup to the Forest Research Education Center just up the road. We haven't been there in many months - perhaps a year or more - for a walk. Inti gets plenty of outdoor time here at druid labs, according to me, anyway. Though I'm sure she enjoys our ballgames, there is a particular joy that shows in her gait and her happy sounds when she's off-property and if lucky enough, off-lead. She gets that chance for part of the walk at FREC.

We parked, as usual, about 100 yards from where the road crosses the Toms River, and walked along the nursery path, past the duck pond and picnic area, and into the woods on the swamp trail. She had her nose down and ran full-tilt the whole way. I'm never sure if she remembers the path or if her nose gives her clues, but in any case, she rarely strays off the walkway. For the entire way through the swamp she was making that wonderful piggy snorting sound - it comes not from her nose, but from her throat or lungs. She takes in the scents with short, sharp gulps continually. Her tail gyrates like a flapping wing. If we stayed in one spot the whole day she couldn't get enough of this place. She sailed past the first few small creeks as if she hadn't seen them (and perhaps she hadn't), but as we approached the Toms River, I could see it was higher than we'd ever encountered, so I called her back to put her on-lead.

The river at this point is perhaps twenty feet across, about 5 feet deep in the middle, and strewn with fallen trees and limbs. Where there are large trees down, the bank is cut from the eddies created by the swiftly moving water. There is one spot, just as we arrive at the river, where Inti loves to swim. It was hard to judge how fast the current was, since the water was so much higher than we're accustomed to.

She didn't think she would get to swim, and barrelled on along the path. I turned her around and encouraged her to jump in. She flung herself in with her usual enthusiasm, even swimming beyond the "beach" before turning around to fight the current back to the landing spot. She was in heaven. I could see that the water was running clear when she shook herself off on the pristine snow. It was the color of weak coffee, or a very strong boiled black tea. There's lots of iron in this water, and though dark, on bright days it's quite easy to see the bottom of the river bed, even in the deep areas.

But it wasn't bright yesterday by the time we got there. When I parked the car the sun was just behind the trees on the hill to the west. Though not yet dusk, it was fast approaching. We continued our walk up river on the path, and ahead I could here the call of some sort of bird. I wasn't familiar with the call, and it sounded just a little alarmed - or maybe just pissed off. As we moved forward it stayed ahead of us, moving frequently. When I finally spotted it, we stopped to take a look. It was large and blue-gray, with a big head and long beak, white collar. A kingfisher? I'd never seen one here before. A few more steps forward and the bird flew down river towards us and past in a flash. Big wings with bars and a scratchy call! Definitely a belted kingfisher. (Why did I know this when I'd never seen one before? Perhaps some things do sink in when I obsessively read bird books, plant books, dictionaries and the like. Go ahead and call me a geek. I deserve it.) This bird was hauling ass down river past us, and I couldn't help but get the impression that we were being warned, as aggressive as its flight was.

We continued our walk along the road and into the woods on the other side. Inti doesn't care much about the birds, or the color of the river. She's just happy to be out there, sniffing something new and exciting, and marking the trail from start to finish. And except for the marking part, that's pretty true for me, too.