The cormorant and the egret…a fishy tale

Once upon a time I hunkered down by one of the lakes at the Preserve to relax and keep an eye (and lens) on one of my favorite birds–the cormorant. I’ve previously called the the U-boats of the bird world. They’re silent, deadly, and can hunt underwater for long periods of time, coming up a completely different place than where they dove. As usual they were fishing and my camera was clicking, although the first round wasn’t quite in focus. But the second round…

…gone fishing and…strike! Oh, yeah, I love Fish Fridays!

I’d be happy to help if you need it. 🙂

Going down. No, I don’t chew my food! What of it?

Hmmmm. Didn’t go down. Let’s try repositioning.

I think I’m burning up all my calories just trying to eat this thing!

Drat! Dropped it. Let’s try again.

WHAAAAAT! Where’d it go??? Something fishy’s going on.

Gotta say, I have no egrets! Thanks for dinner.

The cormorant tried to get this fish down for quite some time, back and forth, up and down. Then he let it slip from his mouth. As I had my Nikon to my eye, I didn’t see the snatch until the egret and fish appeared in my lens. Thankfully I managed to snap a few photos. The cormorant flew off in frustration; the egret flew off with his takeout. You could probably see my smile from wherever you were at the time, although maybe you thought it was the Cheshire Cat. But it was me.