On the other hand, I had video camera in hand when I encountered a Great Blue Heron in a similar situation. It happened up at the Blaine waterfront when I found a great blue fishing among the pilings. The heron allowed me to grab a ringside seat not 8' above it to observe it practicing its skill. This was a young bird and apparently not as skilled as it would become later in life.

I had the tape rolling as it tensed for the strike and then plucked some sort of flat, ribbon-like fish from between the rocks. The fish immediately wrapped itself around the heron's bill, just like the snake did, but this was a tight wrap and the heron took at least 20 minutes to figure out the how-to and finally swallow it. I have the entire 20 minutes +/- on tape; but when the heron pulled out another fish and the same scenario appeared, I said adios! This heron was not one to give up but for me, once was enough!

Interesting, to say the least.

Joe Meche
Bellingham











-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Haller <tim at twonets.net>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sun, Mar 13, 2011 1:27 pm
Subject: [Tweeters] Never give up.


Hi All,

I'm sure you've all seen the cartoon of a heron trying to eat a frog, captioned "Never give up."

Well, I saw it happen at Ridgefield last weekend. We were driving the River S loop, when I saw a great blue heron catch a (garter?) snake. Every time the heron would try to position the snake for swallowing, the snake would wrap itself around the heron's bill and prevent it. This went on for a minute or two, until the heron finally dropped the snake. The heron tried to re-catch it, but came up empty-billed. Score one for the snake!

Of course, I realized AFTER the fact that I had a video camera sitting on the seat behind me.

Tim Haller
Vancouver, WA

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