Kingfisher on Grabov Rat! We saw him in flight and also sitting still on the cliff just above the sea, while swim- ming around the tip of Grabov Rat. But then, it shouldn’t be a surprise: there is a reed bed on the very tip of the peninsula, indicating wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. And the sea water at the tip is known to be brackish because of the fresh water spring there.

Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis, 16-17 cm). A stunning wetland bird. Has orange-red underparts and mainly blue upperparts; electric-blue back seen to best effect when bird is observed in low-level flight. Feet and legs are bright red. Sexes similar except that male has all-dark bill whereas that of female has reddish base to lower mandible. Invariably seen near water and uses overhanging branches to watch for fish. Plungers headlong into water to catch prey in bill; fish is sometimes stunned by beating head on branch before being swallowed head first. Nests in holes excavated in waterside bank. Flight call is a whistling tsii. Widespread resident breeding species from Iberia to Greece and, more locally, in NW Africa. In E Mediterranean, status is essentially that of a widespread winter visitor. Favours rivers and lakes but often forced to move to coasts if preferred sites dry up.

Paul Stery: Birds of the Mediterranean,

Christopher Helm, London, 2004.