6/21/2011: Great Blue Heron, Puzzler for Tuesday
On a recent digiscoping expedition to Talbert Marsh in Newport Beach, CA, we watched (and digiscoped) this Great Blue Heron catch and eat this long green thing. The puzzle is, what is it? It had some strength, which was evident by the what it did to the heron’s throat once swallowed, but I can find, in what little googling around I have had a chance to do so far, nothing slim and green and vaguely reptilian that lives in the coastal marsh in Southern California.
So…any ideas? I have considered that it might not have been animal at all…but it did seem to be self animated (and fighting back).
Canon SD4000IS behind the 20-75x Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 85FL for the equivalent field of view of 1) and 2) 1800mm lens on a full frame DSLR. 1/250th second @ ISO 400. 3) 2500mm equivalent, 1/125th @ ISO 125.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
And here is a snippet of video of the essential action.
Great capture and video on whatever it was.
that was wierd… I watched it twice lol
Great capture! We have these birds in NE PA as well. They are great at keeping the snake population down. It looks like a very lively green snake that he was trying to make a meal on. I’ve never seen them eat before only hunt. Great job!
You know your food’s nice and fresh when it’s still wiggling when it goes down. 🙂 Photos are super; video’s even better.
Nigella Hillgarth suggested on twitter that this might be a pipefish. I think she is right. Bay Pipefish!