I was amazed on Tuesday when I saw a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) snag a really large fish in the shallow waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The heron carefully made its way to a secluded area of the shore where it was hidden from view to enjoy its big catch. It might have been a bit of a struggle for the heron to swallow a fish that large, but I have seen Great Blue Herons swallow fish almost that big in the past.
I had been observing the heron for quite a while and had seen it catch numerous tiny fish as it waded about in the shallow water. Gradually the heron moved to slightly deeper water and continued to look for fish. All of the sudden the heron extended its neck and plunged its head forcefully into the water, extending its wings as it did so. The third image shows how committed the heron was as it submerged its entire upper body.
Once it had grabbed the fish underwater, the heron flapped its mighty wings, as you can see in the final photo, to generate enough force to pull the large fish out of the water. The first image shows the moment when the fish first came out of the water. The second image shows the heron as it slowly and gingerly walked to the shore—it apparently did not want to take the chance of losing its catch.
Tuesday was overcast and cool and up to that point in the day I had not had much success in finding subjects to photograph—this encounter priduced the catch of the day for me and probably for the heron too.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
How exciting g to see such an event and even more so to capture some photos!! I’ve never seen a heron snag such a big fish. Thank you.
Thanks, Ann. Here is a link to a series of images of a Great Blue Heron catching and swallowing a pretty good sized fish during the winter, when there was some ice on parts of the pond. (https://michaelqpowell.com/2016/02/04/winter-fishing/)
Thanks, Mike. Those herons are something to see, for sure.
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That’s a BIG fish! Wow. Very cool. You never know what you’ll see in nature. Usually something, but that was esp interesting.
Your timing on the shots was perfect 👍👍. Great series.
Fantastic Mike! The 2nd shot is so Wow!
Thanks, Liz. I love to watch herons as they fish, but it requires a lot of patience. This time I was fortunate to be in a good position and managed to get some cool shots.
A big kill for heron and a big prize for you.
OOOOO…Excellent action series, Mike! You can really see with the bird’s wings flapping in the water how strong they are.
Too funny that Reader chose your image from October 2018 with a GBH with the tiniest catch to display right under your post…quite the contrast.
Very nice Mike! It is amazing what they can swallow!