Greenie Gets An Eel

Green Herons can stay patiently still in one spot for hours, waiting for a fish or other small prey to come in close enough to be grabbed.

Sometimes we never see them strike at the water at all. Other times we will see one successfully come up with a catch, usually a tiny minnow.

This weekend however we were quite surprised to see this greenie, who had been staring at the water for a very long time, strike and come up with an eel.

It took the heron a while to get the wriggling eel under control, and in a position to be swallowed. Right after the eel went down an odd sensation seemed to hit greenie and he twitched a bit then fluffed up!

8 thoughts on “Greenie Gets An Eel”

Molly Argo on August 13, 2012 at 11:19 am said:

These are fantastic! You also had to have been very patient to catch this!

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Phil Lanoue on August 13, 2012 at 11:50 am said:

Thanks a lot Molly! Yeah we set up on this guy for a while hoping he would come up with something.
I have a lot of shots of him just standing there or staring toward the water.
Luckily there were some alligators and other things around to break up the scene.

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Maleea B on August 13, 2012 at 3:46 pm said:

wow….wonder if it was an “electric” eel….greenie looks like he stuck his beak in a socket. seriously, beautiful picture of the bird’s plumage and an amazing picture of the eel. A glimpse into a world that we never get to see close up. Great job…

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- Phil Lanoue on August 13, 2012 at 5:33 pm said:
  
  Thanks Maleea! I had not thought of that, he does look like he got shocked! Ha!
  I appreciate you looking!
  
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Jennifer on August 16, 2012 at 9:59 am said:

Wow, super series! My cat gets that same look in his eye when he’s hunting.

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- Phil Lanoue on August 17, 2012 at 9:07 am said:
  
  Thanks for looking at these Jen! Yes indeed, many animals and birds get ‘that look’ when hunting. 🙂
  
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adinparadise on January 9, 2013 at 8:44 am said:

I’ve never seen one of these. What fantastic photos. Catching that eel really ruffled his feathers. 🙂

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- Phil Lanoue on January 9, 2013 at 10:57 am said:
  
  Thanks a bunch Slyvia, I’m glad you viewed these photos, the greenie is a favorite of mine.
  Did you notice the face on the poor eel in the fifth pic down? Does not look very happy at all. 😯 And who could blame him?!
  
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