Birds Close, but not close enough!

[Unframed Dave]

Quite often, I see wildlife shots and I'm left asking myself "how on earth do they see these things happening?". It just seems implausible that somebody was in the right place at the right time, but I know it happens.

Yesterday was one of those moments. Almost!

We visited El Fondo, needing to stretch our legs as much as anything. The reserve wasn't particularly busy and there were some somewhat anti social types behaving inappropriately and making a lot of noise. Just as we were about to leave this hide, we spotted this heron and this little scene unfolded. I'm not really sure what happened as towards the end of the fight, the Heron spotted a fairly distant Marsh Harrier and dropped the now dead snake. It stood for about ten minutes by the snake and then flew off. At this point, the Harrier had become quite distant.

I used manual focus to range find the Heron, the camera put it at 110 metres. These photos aren't great given the distance, but I reckon this is fair testament to how good the 200 - 600 is.

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 800

• ILCE-1
• ISO 800

 

[Unframed Dave]

I've been told by a local, that herons rarely eat snakes but like to "play" with them. Much like cat and mouse. This seems plausible as it was only once the snake was dead that the heron lost interest.

 

[iamdlewis]

I've been told by a local, that herons rarely eat snakes but like to "play" with them. Much like cat and mouse. This seems plausible as it was only once the snake was dead that the heron lost interest.

Most Herons/Egrets, especially the large ones, have the attitude of "if it's alive and if I think it will fit in my mouth, I eats it."