Heron catches crayfish (?)

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Heron catches crayfish (?)

July 26, 2013 by Mike Powell

I enjoy watching Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) fishing—they seem so patient and so focused—and observed one recently in the beaver pond at my local marsh.

I was a little surprised to see the heron at that location, because the water level in the pond has dropped as the weather has gotten hotter and some areas are even exposed. As the heron plunged his bill into the shallow water, I expected him to pull out a frog or perhaps a small fish. I was too far away to tell for sure what he had caught, but I kept shooting. When I looked at the images, it looks like he may have caught a crayfish, but I am not really sure. Do herons even eat crayfish? I took the photos in the middle of the day, so the colors are washed out a bit, but some more knowledgeable reader may still be able to tell me for sure if it is a crayfish in the heron’s mouth. (You can get a higher resolution view if you click on the image.)

The second photo was taken before the heron began fishing and gives you an idea of how shallow the water is in the beaver pond. In post processing, I made a number of tweaks to the image to try to increase the contrast and saturation of the colors and may have gone over the top a little. What do you think?

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography | Tagged Ardea herodias, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, crayfish, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park | 12 Comments

12 Responses

on July 26, 2013 at 11:28 pm | Reply Sue

Looks like a crayfish to me. I like the contrast in the second image!
on July 26, 2013 at 11:43 pm | Reply krikitarts

What a catch! I’ve enlarged it and am pretty confident you’re right on with your tentative crayfish identification. But my, what big eyes he has, and what a fine fellow! The only other option that comes to mind is that this was a member of a spearhead group of crustacean-like alien invaders (or possibly the sole scout), and the heron was fulfilling his role as our first line of defense.
- on July 27, 2013 at 5:02 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I know that herons must strong digestive systems to swallow prey whole like they do, but I can’t imagine swallowing a crayfish like that.
on July 27, 2013 at 12:09 am | Reply uthamz

Perfect timing !
Yet another nice shot !

utham
on July 27, 2013 at 2:03 am | Reply muddepaws

I agree that it’s a crayfish, and I think you have the colours in the second image about right. Lovely pics!
- on July 27, 2013 at 5:15 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks for the feedback. I shoot in RAW, which means I have to do a certain amount of processing of my images, but it’s so easy to process them so much that they look unnatural.
on July 27, 2013 at 9:31 am | Reply New Hampshire Gardener

These are beautiful shots. That sure looks like a crayfish to me.
on July 27, 2013 at 11:05 am | Reply nrlymrtl

I like the green of the plant life right next to the blue of the heron feathers. And i too believe that is a crayfish.
- on July 27, 2013 at 6:55 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. The consensus seems to be that it is in fact a crayfish.
on July 27, 2013 at 4:55 pm | Reply lylekrahn

I thot I was on Phil’s blog there for a minute. Great capture. The colour adjustment you did looks good on my monitor.
- on July 27, 2013 at 7:02 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks for the feedback, Lyle. I aspire to taking shots like Phil’s, but need a whole lot more practice. If I keep using my laptop for my processing, I think that I will get an external monitor. I am just not sure that my laptop screen does a good job in showing contrast and lighting.
  - on July 27, 2013 at 11:56 pm lylekrahn
    
    From my experience and from what others have said, laptops are tough to use when trying to judge colour. I switched to another monitor and eventually to a desktop. I’m still not sure my colour calibration is accurate.