Snow, snow and more snow. We actually had a real snowstorm here where we live in Denmark yesterday and today. So now there's snow and ice everywhere you look! Even inside the stables with the cows and sheep, it just blew in through every crack the snow could find!
I love snow and ice, I actually prefer snow and ice above summerheat.
From snow and ice it's only a small step to a Kingfisher, now I can hear you think, what has ice to do with a kingfisher? Well, in Dutch a kingfisher is called an ijsvogel and in Danish an isfugl, what simply translates to icebird.
Actually it's strange that they are called this in Dutch and Danish because this little bird doesn't like frost at all. Kingfishers depend on catching fish for their food. When the water gets frozen, a lot of kingfishers lose their lives, because they aren't able to catch these fish. The surviving birds compensate for that loss with an increased number of clutches.
I love kingfishers, ijsvogels, isfugl, and whatever you call them in your language. They really stick out in nature because of their bright colours, but are hard to spot because they are so quick! Did you know that a kingfisher can reach a speed of 80 kilometers per hour? I have been so lucky to see them twice. Once was while I was kayaking with my parents and my kids in the Netherlands, there were many of them! But as soon as I managed to lay down my paddle and had my camera, of course the birds were long gone. Second time I saw one, was here in Denmark where I was standing alongside a small river, the kingfisher was catching fish and flying so fast that I again came home without any pictures... I love to take my own pictures as reference for my paintings, but here I had to give in and use a free reference photo from the internet.
I made this cute study of a Kingfisher on a wooden palette (45x28 cm.)
It will be for sale in the shop here on my site, where I hope it will find a nice new home with somebody that loves kingfishers as much as I do.
Be quick as a Kingfisher if you feel like buying it, because gone is gone!!!
Here are some photos from the snowstorm, do you see the roof from our house peeping over the snow?
Greetings Katinka