Good news, Brad is back from his field office visit (in actuality he made it back just before I released my last post, but I didn’t see his expense report come in before hitting publish). I can definitely use the break as tomorrow morning is my “simulation” run for the fast approaching ultra trail race. Plan is to cover ~75% of the course, but 100% of the terrain (there is an 8 mile repeated section). The 24 or so miles shouldn’t be an issue, but the heat is the big unknown as temps have been climbing steadily since last week. It could be a “devil” of a time which makes Brad’s post on point. Enjoy this “spear-ited” adventure while I go talk through the battle plan with the crew.
Take it away Brad…
Sometimes with wildlife photography, Iām not really sure what Iām seeing, but I keep the shutter going just in case. Iāve been lucky enough to get the precise moment a Bald Eagle snatches dinner from a river. Weāve also caught the precise moment dinner exits a bird (not pretty, so no more details here) on more than one occasion. This time, both Jan and I were very unsure what we were seeing. Luckily, we took a combined few hundred photos over the course of a minute or two. As the subject moved along and came into focus (pun intended) we were able to tell what it was, but really couldnāt believe what we were seeing.
Jan and I were sitting on a berm at the end of Woody Pond at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. Even though there was no one at the gate to check our National Park Pass, we felt better that we had one with us. What?! No National Parks Pass yet? Go get one right now, itās well worth the time. Of course, if you are reading this blog, you probably already have one.
Let me paint a picture for you.Ā The berm at the end of Woody Pond acts more like a dam for the shallow-ish pond-like sort of area.Ā It seemed to be more of a deep marsh because the thick parts of the tree trunks (you know, where they normally come out of the ground) werenāt sticking that far out of the water.Ā To our right, a few dozen yards away, was a very large alligator sitting right in the middle of the path. (link here) Ā To the left was a Great Blue Heron (GBH) trying to fish.Ā Right behind the GBH were three more alligators: one very large and two bite-sized versions.Ā
I was standing on the berm about halfway between the two groups of gators. Jan was to my left and a bit closer to the set of three alligators, but also very near the car. She was also somewhat protected from them by being across a small arm of water, just in case. There was a tree stump sitting in the water 15-20 feet from the bank. A minute before, a bird had been perching on it, but now it was empty. Butterbutts (Yellow-rumped Warblers) were flitting about like mosquitoes. Luckily, even in this marsh area, there were no mosquitoes in February.
We were watching the GBH on its morning snack hunt when Jan pointed and said, āWhatās that?ā
Hit the jump to find out what kind of āsnakeā this really is.
āI donāt know,ā was my reply. It took me a second or two to find what she was pointing at. What is that? Once I found it below the trees, my first thought ran to a yet-to-be-determined type of water snake looking for a meal from the low branches on the trees. My second thought was, āHoly Crap!ā Are any of those right around where Iām sitting so very close to the water?
As it got closer, I was still thinking a snake had been lucky enough to grab a bird, but this was a very funny looking bird on the end of the āsnakeā. Then I saw the ābirdā was actually a fish and wondered why a snake would hold a fish out of water instead of simply eating it. Maybe the āsnakeā was trying to keep the fish from ābreathingā underwater before it ate the fish? That didnāt make any sense. Either way, it kept swimming in our direction and we both kept the cameras rolling.
Through the viewfinder, I can now see what looks like a fish stuck on the end of a birdās dagger-like bill. A large bird started climbing out of the water and up the dead tree roots.
WARNING: Graphic Content Ahead! Sensitive viewers may want to skip ahead a few photos. (The Intrigued Legal team made me add that.)
The bird, an Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga), had speared a Yellow Bullhead. The word Anhinga means āsnake birdā or ādevil birdā. Clearly, you can understand my earlier confusion. The bullhead was still flapping from side to side for all it was worth. I realized the fish was solidly impaled. Then I began to wonder how the Anhinga was going to get the still flapping fish off its skewer of a bill and into its belly for dinner. The next steps surprised both Jan and I.
The Anhinga proceed to bludgeon the bullhead on the tree stump. I chose the word ābludgeonā carefully because we could hear the solid āthumpā of the fish on the wood. The sound reminded me of hitting a tree with a mallet hammer. Thump! The Anhinga raised its head then forcefully slammed the bird on the stump over and over and over. The bludgeoning lasted about 3 minutes according to photo timestamps.
Jan luckily caught the pivotal moment, but right then her camera chose to focus precisely where the fish had been a second before. It all happened in a blur (pun intended).
It was a clean catch, headfirst down the gullet. I could tell this Anhinga had done this before.
Iāve read where birds that feed on fish can sometimes choose one much larger than they can safely swallow.Ā At this point, I was seriously wondering if we were going to see one of natureās ironies:Ā The hunter succumbing to the prey in the end.Ā We did observe a Great Blue Heron eating a fish twice as big as its head last year (here).
The Anhinga was swaying back and forth with the bullhead partially sticking out of its mouth. I sympathized with the Anhinga, remembering a few holiday dinners when just one more bite was actually about five bites too many. The fish just wasnāt going to go gentle into that good night.
The Anhinga had to be thinking, āA nice slurp of pond water would be good right now.ā And maybe a mint . . . just wafer thin. I know sometimes I feel better when I have a sip of water after eating a bit too much. However, Iām usually a little more tactful about taking a drink.
The Anhinga took several head-immersed drinks of water, spit some of the water out, tried to swallow a little bit more, and dunked its head again. Ā Dunk, drink, spit, repeat.Ā This went on for a minute or two before the Anhinga felt dinner was secured.Ā An adult Anhinga can eat between 10 and 20 small bluegills per day.Ā I suspect this one just ate the equivalent of 5-10 bluegills in one swallow.Ā It spread its water-laden wings and flew to another perch about 50 yards away.Ā
The Anhinga rested on another tree trunk alongside a Little Blue Heron. It dried its wings as we walked to the car.
The whole event took less than 10 minutes from first āsnakeā sighting to abandoning the dinner perch. Interestingly enough, there didnāt seem to be any reaction from the alligators during this whole interlude.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Anhinga photos, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Very nice series of photos.
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Thank you David.
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Great photos of a feeding. At least it ate the fish. I’ve seen our GBH kill two different catfish and just leave them. Pescicide, I tell you.
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Maybe they were too “fishy”. We’ve only been luck enough to see a GBH eat a fish twice as big as its head. Three minute earlier, or three minutes later we would have missed the whole thing. Thanks Tim!
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I was waiting to see how he was going to eat that one giant catfish. He just kept stabbing it like a psycho killer, carrying it around, all proud of himself, and then stabbing it again. It was pretty much the same the second time, but a much smaller catfish.
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Hope someone else gotten first catfish .
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Hmmmm, sounds like an intriguing option for a Halloween scene..maybe a killer clown using an Ahinga to stab people…wheels a turning.
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Maybe the clown can stab people after they are tripped up by the tree root of all evil. Always happy to get your wheels turning. It gives you something to ponder on your long, lonely runs.
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Yes! I come up with my best ideas on the runs…probably should keep more focus on the roots ha.
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…done! š
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Glad you enjoyed it!
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We call that āfish flippinā šš. Sometimes young ones need to flip a fish many times until they get it right. The gators enjoy Anhinga too š„¹
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I bet the gators were watching to see if the anhinga dropped the fish, or the fish dropped the anhinga leaving an easy gator morsel to snack on. Amazing they are able to “flip” the fish at all Ted.
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I sat one day with an Audubon photog and we just took various shots of flippin for a few hours. Fun to watch. šš
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A shot of a Gator flipping an Anhinga while the Anhinga flips a fish would be gold! Put that on the list of shots to get this year Brad!
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Phew. When I first started reading, I was worried you would show photos of alligators swallowing a Great Blue Heron. I’m glad you didn’t!
I, too, would have had to think about that snake-like apparition emerging from the water, and I would also have worried about it choking on its large meal. So much for chewing every bite 40 times (which is something John Harvey Kellogg advocated, BTW. We might all be better off if we did!).
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I think the GBH and Anhinga would benefit from chewing a bit longer. Or at least sizing up a tiny bit better if they bit off more than they could swallow. Not to worry, I won’t be publishing the demise of any wading or shore bird at the hands of a gator. Thanks for stopping by Tanja.
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I think all of us would benefit from chewing more, I know I do. And I’m relieved to know that you won’t show nature’s less pleasant side.
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Thinking Kellogg would also recommend we turn off the phone when we are eating these days!
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That’s a brilliant idea!
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Nice series of images!
We grew up with Snake Birds stealing the bluegills from our lines before we could get ’em pulled in. The Anhinga is pretty amazing. Had a chance last week to see one swimming below me as I stood on a dock. Neat to see how they use their spread tale as a rudder.
Enjoyable post!
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Thank you Wally. Now that I know what I was looking at, I can pay better attention because I know what it’s leading up to.
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Nice pics, Brad. Pretty amazing. Nature is full of surprises.
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Yes it is Jerry. That’s why Jan and I usually end up with thousands of photos of stuff we haven’t seen before. Though every now and then I’ll need to learn to put the camera down and watch nature unfold without a viewfinder in the way.
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Reminds me of a scene in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – although not a fan of Sean Penn by any means, I liked the part where he sees the Snow Leopard – “When are you going to take it [photograph]?” “Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgMy38ncZfY
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The total eclipse was like that this time. I kept looking up and let the cameras click away on their own. The memory photo is sometimes better than the camera’s version.
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….also means less photos to process ha.
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Sort of. We still had three cameras clicking away, but at a lower frame rate.
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Those counts still build up.
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Nearly 200k clicks on each, and counting…
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I should look at my counts sometime…somewhat hesitant as I know it is probably really high ha.
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Sort of a badge of honor to be way past anticipated design spec. I try to balance my cameras so they all wear out at once.
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True…although I do cringe a bit when I see my photo counter reset to 0000
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It’s only a temporary reset. A friend cranked off 2,000 images in one evening, on his brand new camera, to try out his new ruggedized backup hard drive. He was curious how long it would take to transfer the photos because it was only USB 1.0 and claimed it could store up to 999 photos.
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You thing there would be a way to simulate that – simply replicating an image on the card and sticking it back in rather than putting the stress on the camera.
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You would think . . .
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Fascinating photo series, Brad! Really well captured, and thanks for sharing it with us. Loved the title, too, made me think about who might be watching from the sidelines for a slip-up.
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How fascinating, I have only seen this bird once and he was so far away. I just looked this park up on my maps. We were right by it a year ago, I have got to punch in wildlife refuge more often when we travel. We are going to be back in that area again this year, so I marked it on my map to visit. I love learning of all these places you go so I can mark them down. I look forward to visiting it this fall. š
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Good luck with your visit Sandra, definitely worth the effort to find the park. Just keep an eye out for the many gators if it’s a warm sunny day.
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Wow, wow, wow! Great captures, Brad & Jan! āļø
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Thank you very much Lisa. We’ve been fortunate so far this year to be able to catch interesting bird behavior: Right place, right time. And keep the shutter clicking because you never know which of the hundreds of photos will be the money shot, so to speak.
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Best of luck for your crazy race, B! āļø
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Thanks Lisa..I can use all the well wishes I can get at this point hehehe.
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Such a weird bird–in appearance and behavior. Your second fish-on-a-stick picture cracked me up. š
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Glad you enjoyed the photos and the story. You can understand my confusion at first. No way I thought it was a bird under the water.
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