Kingfisher Wars

May 26th, 2010 posted by admin
Add comments

I was minding my own business the other day, just sitting there watching TV. I wasn’t even really watching it. I was just dozing, finding joy in the little things: learning about cd duplication ; watching children’s programmes, touchingly boring news stories, that kind of thing.

Then I changed channels and suddenly I found myself intrigued and locked in to a fierce posture where my back was bolt-upright and my jaw was agape. It was a nature programme which delved deep in to the dramatic and often horrible world of Kingfishers. Not only did it have cameras in their nests and everything, so I felt like I was myself a Kingfisher stalking about menacingly, the commentary told a devastating tale of love and war, as one Kingfisher defended her territory against the might of an invading female. Wow!

It was captivating stuff. The story was horrific and truly disturbing…right up there with the greatest tragic modern classics where all is gambled on one precious moment. It went like this. A Kingfisher female had invaded (madness!) and the original female (whose territory it was) had, quite understandably, taken it upon herself to try and kill the invader by any means possible (which, when you are a Kingfisher with no hands, has to be pretty limited). And that was how it went. Over and over again they fought, until they both ended up in the water trying to drown one another.

I was sweating after the first battle, but after the second I was nearly in tears as they both drowned, right before my awestruck eyes!