Catch of the day

I have only seen a grey heron catch an eel twice in my life. Funnily enough, it was on opposite sides of the same road. The first occasion it was a young bird, and it took ages to kill and swallow its prey. This time it was an adult bird, and after a few stabs the prey was dead and able to be swallowed. I know the shot lacks critical sharpness, but there was no time to up the ISO, and I thought it was worth posting anyway.

Thanks for looking.

David

Nikon D300, 600mm Nikon 1.4x converter, 200 ISO, 1/500th @ f7.1

Well caught David. I herons I have seen catching eels near here always seem to have trouble killing them as the eel nearly always wraps itself around the birds beak. As a result, the heron also has to do a lot of beak cleaning to remove the slime.
This image shows the eel well against the contrasting background.

David i would have been very pleased to have captured this scene,certainly worth posting.

Keith.

An interesting shot David. Only birds I saw with eels were young storks after the parent regurgitated them. They were still hard to swallow.

David

Very well captured activity a rare encounter.

Great "As it is " shot, David.
JR

Well captured and great to see such behaviour

Yes indeed a great catch, tells a great story this image David, cannot fault it, wonderful.

I've seen this a couple of times, but never photographed it as well as this, great shot

Oscar

Very well captured David, great feeding shot.

Nick.

Would like to have this scene in the viewfinder one day, David. I too can't fault it

Andy...