Hi, Burt.

That must have been fun. I wonder if the frog was alive. Herons and other birds that eat relatively large prey very often spend quite a bit of time manipulating (and mandibulating) their prey, and I have always thought this was to kill it or at least greatly reduce its squirmability. But it would be interesting to have more information about the activities of swallowed prey!

I have read the speculation that the bittern moves itself like that to mimic the swaying of marsh vegetation in the breeze. I have seen this on a number of occasions. They do it even when there isn't a breath of wind.

Dennis


On Mar 28, 2010, at 12:00 PM, tweeters-request at mailman2.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:15:24 -0700
> From: "Guttman,Burt" <GuttmanB at evergreen.edu>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Fun at Nisqually
> To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID:
> <FB5E1621DB200144B9B4868129BF0BD40176C8C9 at birch.evergreen.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Several people out walking yesterday at Nisqually NWR, both casual and serious birders, got quite a show from a Great Blue Heron. We had stopped to admire it as it stood frozen in the shallows along the eastside boardwalk, when suddenly it lashed out and came up with a huge frog -- a bullfrog, I'm quite sure. It stood there, trying to adjust the frog in its bill as people wondered at the size of its intended meal and speculated about whether, and how, it could get the frog in position to swallow. It kept manipulating the frog for several minutes, sometimes letting it down to the tips of its bill and dipping the frog in the water. Then it flew off, a little farther down the shallow ditch, and we all walked down that direction and found it again, still struggling to position the frog. This must have taken at least ten minutes, until finally -- I think we were all rather astonished -- it got the frog into the right position and quickly zhooobsh down it went into the heron'!
> s mouth, and we could see its throat expanding. Some people wondered what it feels like to have a live animal in your stomach. One woman recalled seeing a heron, somewhere else, that ate three snakes, one right after the other.
>
> Then just a few meters farther along the ditch we found a Bittern sitting in a little grassy patch. For a few minutes, the Bittern's body oscillated back and forth, in a slight sideways motion; I've never seen this before, and I speculated that perhaps the bird had just swallowed a meal -- it had just come up onto the grass from the water --and that this motion was helping it settle the meal in its stomach. Any other ideas?
>
> A few minutes earlier, a lot of people had enjoyed the sight of one Great Horned Owl -- no young birds. And the bulbous, hanging Bushtit nest is easily seen from the eastside boardwalk -- I'm surprised they build it so far out in the open.
>
> Lots of Shovelers and Pintails on the west side, and tons of geese still. All in all, a very pleasant day.
>
> Burt Guttman

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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