[obol] Another item on the Great Blue Menu

[Tom McNamara]

OBOL,

Actually, the food item I'm reporting on was totally expected: a fish. 
Except for  the size  of the damn thing......it happened about 9 or 10 years 
on the Salmon River estuary in Otis.  I was  rock hopping my way back on the 
side of the estuary  when I saw a Great  Blue take two or  three rapid,  
purposeful strides and then Jab! into the shallows,  emerging with a fish, a 
salmonid of some sort. Anyway, the striking thing was that this fish must've 
  been on the order of 14-16 inches or so. So,  I was thinking, an ambitious 
  heron  here.

He was holding  the fish crossways in his  bill and commenced putting  the 
death squeeze on the thing. Fish wasn't moving a whole lot but  blood was 
streaming down its sides and .....yeah,  gory.  I  have to say that with the 
fish positioned thusly the bird reminded  me of someone with an omelet in a 
skillet just kind  of timing it so that when it's quickly raised while 
deploying the spatula the whole  thing flips nicely. Well, just so with this 
heron. He bobbed his  bill a few times, threw the fish into the air and got 
it aligned vertically and then swallowed the thing whole.....looking at its 
neck  , you could see the fish moving (swimming?) its way to its 
destination. Unbelievable.

good birding, happy eating
Tom

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