Of Belted Kingfishers and Blacknose Shiners

Are Belted kingfishers (Ceryle alcyon) nesting near our pond at Spiritwood?

Stay tuned… Sure sounds as though they are. Their rattling calls greet me every day as they dart about, over its surface and then as they flit into the nearby woods. We wonder how pond denizens such as the Blacknose shiners (Notropis heterolepsis) will relish their presence...

These fish are members of the minnow family. Although we’ve never stocked our pond here at Spiritwood, they are plentiful, darting about amid the pond weeds, where they find nourishment – as well as protection from predators like the kingfishers.

Last Saturday, April 16, Tom Armstrong was here with his heavy machinery and one of the jobs we asked him do was deepen the pond. Siltation was happening: it is surprising how much silt settles at the bottom, to create a shallower ecosystem. According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s booklet, Shorelines… a festival of Life, (2007) Blacknose shiners are “sensitive to the effects of siltation and acidity on water quality.” So perhaps deepening the pond by half a metre or so will assist this species to flourish.