As Kingfishers Catch Fire.

Earlier this year we visited Slimbridge WWT and whilst we were there, I saw a kingfisher for the first time. It was only a fleeting glimpse as a dart of blue shot across my eyeline.

Yesterday at Arundel WWT, I saw two more kingfishers. Kingfishers have been nesting at Arundel since 2020 and somewhat conveniently have chosen a spot near one of the hides. In fact, according to a press article there have been territorial disputes this year.

I must confess that I found myself coveting those with expensive and powerful telephoto lenses that occupied the hide today, the photograph above is the best I could manage on my faithful Panasonic. To see some far better shots, have a look at Arundel WWTs Facebook page.

It was good when I got home this evening to reread Gerard Manley Hopkins# wonderful poem

As Kingfishers Catch Fire
BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Source: Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985)