Nov 8 2013

Something fishy going on


Earlier this week, our resident Great Blue Heron seemed be suffering from a case of  “Your eyes are bigger than your belly;” a favourite saying of my gran’s. I spotted him on the other side of the lake, as he pondered what to do with his prize. “Now how in the name of all that’s fishy, am I going to get this monster down my gullet?”

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I zoomed in to see exactly what his problem was, as he suddenly flew down to the water’s edge.

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He’d decided that maybe if he gave it a quick wash, it might shrink a little.

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But alas, the water just seemed  to make the fish swell up even more.

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This time he’d certainly bitten off more than he could chew.

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His catch was turning out to be a whale of a problem.

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In the end he carried it across to my side of the pond, and hidden by the bank, I couldn’t see what he did with his catch of the day. A bit later, I spotted him again, and I’m sure he was thinking “Ah well, you win some, you lose some.”

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The last time I saw him with a really big fish, an eagle swooped down and cheekily snaffled it, whilst he was debating with himself how to deal with his big dinner. 🙂

103 comments on “Something fishy going on”

  1. This is so funny. I don’t usually like stories and pictures of animals eating animals, but I guess I don’t mind if it’s a fish. hehehe This was so funny. I guess we will never know how or if he ate his dinner! You did a masterful job of describing it. 🙂

  2. Such a great series! You wouldn’t think he could even pick up such a whopper! I was just wondering as the song goes through my mind…Did you name your blog after the Phil Collins song? Loved that song!

  11. boy, talk about being in the right spot at the right time! you captured a rare moment i think – how it caught such a big fish in the first place is the other mystery. as your other readers commented – your story lines, delightful! thanks for sharing. ♥

  14. I see Phil has been inspiring you, Sylvia :). Honey, I don’t know what happened to my “blogs I follow” list, but you have dropped from it without my knowing. I wonder how this could have happened, and there I go wondering where the notifications of your posts are :(. I had to click follow again – I hope it stays this time. As for this post.. the pictures are so good, and your humour has made my morning. Be well. Hugs, P.

    • I have a long way to go, before Phil has to worry about the competition. 😀 I also find strange things happening on WP, and find blogs in my follow list that I’m almost sure I didn’t follow, and am also missing ones that I did. All very irritating, but what can we do? 😕 Glad you enjoyed my post, Paula. Have a wonderful weekend.

  15. questa gustosa ( non per l’airone, ovvio) storiella fotografica ha una sua massima : mai pretendere un boccone più grosso di quanto si può mangiare…si rischia di restare a digiuno….( chi troppo vuole, nulla stringe-proverbio toscano) grande sequenza di scatti
    happy day, cara

    This tasty (not for Heron, obvious) photo story has its maxim: never expect a bigger bite than you can eat … you are likely to remain on an empty stomach.(who too want nothing squeezes-Tuscan proverb) big burst

  21. Fabulous, and I love your running commentary! It must have been amazing to see that eagle poach the other bird’a fish.

    Also, btw, your last comment to me on my blog had a smiley face, and I realized belatedly that my blog strips smileys out of comments if I handle them on mobile. Not sure what’s up with that, but inserting a smiley here to see if it works here. 🙂

  25. terrific series AD, I wonder what did happen??? We had a large black snake trapped in the vegetable garden for a while this week … it had caught a big lizard and could not slip back through the gate while carrying the lizard … so it had to settle down and swallow it, then it escaped!

  27. that is too funny…we used to say the “eyes are bigger than our belly” as well…wonder how he managed to catch the larger fish in the first place? great photos…

  30. Well captured! Pity you didn’t get one of the previous ‘one that flew away’!
    His fisherbird’s story: ‘I tell you, son, it was as long as THIS, but then this eagle came and took it away!’

  37. Terrific shots of my favorite bird in action Sylvia! These big guys do not know the meaning of the phrase…biting off more then I can chew (or swallow) 😀

  38. I bet the fish thought his luck was in when he was taken back to the river: “Whew, he’s gonna put me back! I knew today was going to be a good day!” But…no.

  46. Perfect timing and nice captures. 🙂 I will show these pictures to my children to show them why the pond is the perfect habitat for a heron. 🙂

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