Marg
07-11-2010, 04:07 PM
Thought you would be interested in seeing just how large a fish a heron can handle and how!
Our friends have a home near Lion's Head (Bruce Peninsula). They get to watch the local wildlife right from the deck of their lakeside home. Having a camera ready and time to watch, she captured the following shots.
The heron walks the shoreline at least daily for his meals. This time, it speared the 14"? pike through the eye and held it out of the water till it stopped struggling. Then it would lower it down into the water. Each time it moved, the heron would hold it up high for awhile. Then it would test again.
When all struggling stopped, the heron proceeded to flip the pike so it was head first into it's mouth. This took about 25 minutes. It had no trouble swallowing this large fish nor in flying away.
I don't know if all herons do not have feathers under their wings against their chest but this one appears to have bare spots. If only this one has bare spots, he appeared 2-3 times a day while we were up there. Having had such a large fish, a couple of days before we came up, you would think he wouldn't need to fish so soon.
If anyone else has more heron sightings ...please feel free to add.
Our friends have a home near Lion's Head (Bruce Peninsula). They get to watch the local wildlife right from the deck of their lakeside home. Having a camera ready and time to watch, she captured the following shots.
The heron walks the shoreline at least daily for his meals. This time, it speared the 14"? pike through the eye and held it out of the water till it stopped struggling. Then it would lower it down into the water. Each time it moved, the heron would hold it up high for awhile. Then it would test again.
When all struggling stopped, the heron proceeded to flip the pike so it was head first into it's mouth. This took about 25 minutes. It had no trouble swallowing this large fish nor in flying away.
I don't know if all herons do not have feathers under their wings against their chest but this one appears to have bare spots. If only this one has bare spots, he appeared 2-3 times a day while we were up there. Having had such a large fish, a couple of days before we came up, you would think he wouldn't need to fish so soon.
If anyone else has more heron sightings ...please feel free to add.