This week we saw a kingfisher on our stretch of the river. I love seeing them. The pure treat of it is something that I don’t think I will ever tire of. This time the experience had me buzzing with energy that I had to write about it as soon as we got home. Not about the bird itself because maybe the reality of that is too ephemeral for me to capture in words, but about the experience of seeing that living being and the way that made me feel.

It is this experience that has inspired this prompt. I invite you to visit your chosen space and to write about the experience of encountering another creature there. It could be something special like a kingfisher or a deer, but equally it could be something everyday like a spider or a woodlouse. It could be a wild creature, or something domesticated like a cat, a dog or even a farm animal. I suppose the important thing is that this meeting should be unexpected. It should include an element of surprise.

Things that you may think about:

• Why are you in that place at that moment in time?
• How do you feel about being there?
• Who are you with and how do they feel about being there?
• What is the creature that you see and where do you see it?
• Are they in your territory or are you in theirs?
• Can you described the experience of observation? How, what, where. why?
• How do you feel as a result of this experience?

Kingfisher

We made it to the river on a walk that had not been a popular choice.

As if by way of apology the moment we arrive a kingfisher appears.

Normally when we see that flash of blue over the water they imprint on our memories before we register what we have actually seen. But today is different.

You cry out:

“A kingfisher! I saw a kingfisher.”

We both hold our breath expecting it to be gone already, but hoping that we may catch another glimpse.

Then we see it again. That glorious dash of colour darting from one side of the river. This is unusual because normally we see them flying parallel with the riverbanks, a matter on millimetres from the surface of the water.

It stops on the low scrub on the island.

“It’s a shame there’s so much rubbish out there,” you say. “Maybe we can clear it away in summer and make it nicer for them?”

Unusually we have the binoculars. We don’t carry them often because they are big and clumsy, but today you get them out and use them to look closer, without immediate success.

Some gulls fly overhead and you manage to fix them in your sight.

“We often get black headed gulls on this part of the river,” I say.

“Well these aren’t black headed gulls,” you say.” Their heads are most certainly white.” 

***

You spot the kingfisher again, still hopping from bank to bank but now heading back upstream towards the area where they normally nest. We decide to try and get past the bird to watch it make its way back up the river towards us.

We run ahead then wait patiently where the bank lowers but I don’t see it again. You are sure that you do but I am not convinced suspecting maybe that now the joy is in the find rather than the watch.

Time passes. We don’t talk. You watch.

Eventually you ask to put the binoculars away because you are ready to go home.

We walk up the hill and we talk about what we have seen.

As ever I am excited to have spotted a kingfisher. Their physical presence in my life is a relatively new thing.

I love that for you, living near this stretch of river, they have always been something that you have lived with. So generally you do not get as excited as me.

But today, as we climb up on our homeward journey even you observe:

“Well…that was something special.”

This post was originally posted on Substack on 29th January 2023