the happiness bird

I'm not a twitcher but I like seeing birds, and my favourite is the kingfisher. I'm lucky enough to have seen a few but sightings are rare and they always lift my spirits.

Last night we walked around a newly discovered (by us) local ecology reserve. Disused gravel pits in a small strip between the river and the road, hardly anyone goes there.

So this abandoned pit is now a clear stretch of water, blue in the midsummer evening sun. Over it I saw a kingfisher fly into a tree, and it emerged a few moments later so my partner saw it too. Not just the turquise blue but the bright orange underbelly illuminated by the low sun. It flew across and was gone, but is still imprinted in my mind as a glowing vision of pure happiness.

Are we predisposed to love that colour? The oasis in a desert. The longed for cooling stream. A reminder of the preciousness of water as we wonder how long these small wild places can hold on.