Search bayweekly.com Search Google    Earth Journal by Gary
Pendleton  What’s in a Name?  A good story, if you’re the
halcyon bird, our kingfisher   Now there is a word for you:
halcyon. It is a word rarely encountered outside of bad poems
and pretty good nature essays. It means calm, peaceful; a golden
time, usually long-past, when all was fair.  Along the creeks
and marshes, a loud, uneven rattle is sometimes heard as a dark
blue blur streaks over the water. It is the halcyon bird, better
known as the belted kingfisher.  To me there doesn’t seem to be
anything peaceful or calm about the kingfisher. With its shaggy
crests, it looks like a bird having not just a bad hair day but
perhaps a bad day in general. The rattling call commands
attention; though it might be a welcome sound, it is not
soothing.  I consulted Christopher Leahy’s voluminous and
authoritative The Birdwatchers Companion to understand why
kingfishers are the halcyon birds. He describes the connection
as “a fanciful metaphor and bad ornitholog