We watched one fishing in the marsh at the entrance to Huntington Beach State Park.
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What will 'today's catch' on the menu be?
A frog? Snail? Worm? Lizard?
Nope!
Today's catch is a nice fresh fish.
Fried, grilled, or blackened?
Nope!
Sushi style!
Flip it around head first, and down the craw it goes!
See those lumps in his neck? That's the fish making its way down that long pipe to his stomach. 
A Willet saw the heron's success and dropped in to try his hand, er, beak, at getting some lunch himself. We expected the much bigger heron to chase the smaller bird away, but here's what happened.
The heron ignored the little guy and the two were fishing away right next to each other when we left to get some lunch for ourselves at Capt. John's Seafood in Pawleys Island. By the way, Capt. John's 'today's catch' was halibut and it was outstanding!
What a sweet, kind heron! And, quite different from the one I see often. Have a wonderful weekend.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics Cynthia. I'm sure you should be writing childrens books with your great photos and interesting storylines.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beauty. Mac just put an owl out by the lagoon because a heron keeps stopping by to fish and he, Mac, has mostly hand raised the fish and doesn't appreciate the poaching.
ReplyDeleteFascinating thisn about herons is that they start looking for more before the first one is all the way down.
ReplyDeleteI like to watch them fish they are very patient birds! Lunch sound great!
ReplyDeleteAll makes perfect sense to me.
ReplyDeleteHarry or Harriet Heron wasn't too concerned about
the eating habits or the gullet size of William or
Wilma Willet.
Harry/Harriet Heron was still slowly digesting his/her fill.
Why be greedy, eh?
Colin
PS: And now back to The AUSSIE OPEN. I am starting to see yellow balls in my sleep.
I hope Paul doesn't suffer sleep deprivation from watching little white golf balls???
How lovely those two together, fishing - kindness is a wonderful thing :)
ReplyDeleteSuch great photos, a joy to see the two birds together.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing photos you made of the lunch of the heron. I have never seen such a coloured one. Here they are all grey.
ReplyDeleteThe Willett would probably disturb a few fish sending them the Heron's way. Lady of the Waters is a beautiful name which should be revived.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're getting some nice catches too with your new lens.
ReplyDeleteThat's a much more colourful heron than the ones I see. Wonderful series of photos.
ReplyDeleteThat Willet should be a tad wary of getting so close to the heron which is not above enjoying a tasty shorebird snack.
ReplyDeleteIts been a few years since I first saw all the beautiful waders in Florida. Now if memory serves me right is the tri color the one which staggered around looking drunk to stir up its prey...?...:)
ReplyDeleteThat is the prettiest Heron I've ever seen. I don't see how they swallow whole fish, especially a fish that is alive and flopping around like they do. The Halibut sounds great. Poppy caught a 50 lb. Halibut in Alaska in 1998. We had it dressed and packaged and sent home. It was the best fish I've ever eaten.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful bird he is. I love watching them when I can. I saw where a blue heron will eat gophers , good way to get the varmints down. I think they are just so graceful and quick.
ReplyDeleteLove your pictures they make me miss the lake and summers as we're still in the middle of the cold up here.
ReplyDeleteDear Cynthia, oh, this blog posting just delighted me! Seeing Ms. Lady of the Waters in her element was a treat. Such fine photographs and spare text!Thank you. Peace.
ReplyDeleteI've seen something like this in Hawaii which was astounding. The bird actually chose a fish that was a bit too big for him and a crowd soon gathered to watch if the bird could actually swallow it. It took about 20 minutes but he did manage. Looked excruciating though.
ReplyDelete