From the Field

So often it is not the shots that I was after that turn out to be the ones of most interest. Like everybody else I have often seen herons standing around in fields well away from water and carelessly assumed that they were looking for worms or perhaps the occasional frog. This series of shots has changed my mind for good.

The quality is not that great because I was shooting through a thick canopy of leaves and was forced to use manual focus. As the heron wandered out of my depth of field, I daren’t try and refocus for fear of making things worse. Nevertheless you can clearly see that the vole has been turned and swallowed head first.

I was trying to photograph buzzards at the time when I noticed this drama unfolding to one side of my hide. The heron had been frozen to the spot for some time, watching the grass and  when I saw it slowly lowering its head and curving its neck back, I knew it was about to strike so I started shooting.

There was to be no escape for this small vole unlike the next one which was much larger and only held by one front leg. That one managed to escape when the heron tried to turn it for swallowing.

This little drama and some other pictures that have come to light recently have changed my perceptions about just how catholic a diet herons might have. There are images out there of them eating large ducklings, dabchicks and even a rabbit. Whenever we see a mallard brood decreasing in size day by day, mink and pike are most commonly accused of killing them. I have a sneaky feeling that the real culprit is more likely to be tall, grey and waiting motionless among the reeds for them to pass his way...

October 2009 - vole-hunting heron