Friday, April 20, 2012

Heron vs. Snake

Yesterday we had a crazy start to our birding tour.  In the pond behind the nature center, we saw a Great Blue Heron trying to eat a big snake!  It was a southern water snake, about 4-5 feet long.  It was wrapped around the heron's bill, and the heron was trying to shake it and dunk in under water, but the snakes head kept popping back up.  Not sure if the heron was shaking it to kill it or to get it off it's bill.  We watched for a while, but then went on to see other birds (including two male painted buntings!).  Christina kept checking on it for us, and she saw it get the snake down its throat only to have it come back up again.  We're not 100% sure what the end result was, but we think the heron bit off more than it could chew and the snake got away.  I've seen a heron eating an eel during one of our kayak tours, but nothing like this nature battle before! 

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