I watched this great blue heron play with this fish for a while. He kept flipping it over, dropping it and then picking it up several times on to flip it again. I was hoping to catch him swallowing it but after I while I gave up.
Even the black bellied whistling ducks that were close by stopped to watch him.
I broke a cardinal rule when out on the trails. Not paying attention to what’s around you. I saw the heron above with his fish and was moving around trying to get a good shot in between the trees before he swallowed it. After snapping a few pictures, I saw the above out of the corner of my eye. He was inches from my head. He probably wouldn’t have done much damage other than to my mental well-being but I should have looked around first. Their bite on humans is mostly like a bad mosquito bite. The trees along the trails at Circle B Bar Reserve are full of these silk orb weavers. “Look up for spiders and snakes and down for alligators before taking shots.”
Good advice!! Nice sharp photos
Lovely time catching up with you — don’t think I’ve ever seen a silk orb weaver but I’ll certainly look up from now on. He’s awful pretty for a poisonous spider.