I thought this was particularly interesting and I thought I might share it since I had never seen this before.

The set-up; There is a Levee that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. Adjacent to it is a canal where they dug the soil to help build the levee. The levee is for hurricane protection built after quite a substantial amount of inhabitants perished due to a big storm but I digress. There is a hiking/biking trail that is atop this levee.

It is here I go for daily walks. I grab my pack and bags and get hoofin. I'm up to about 2.5 miles fairly comfortably. My goal is 5. Of course it barely counts as it is flat and paved but anyway (I'm rambling......focus lad ;) ).

There is quite a bit of wildlife especially birds of all sorts. Today I witnessed an adult Great Blue Heron take off from the shore and land in the middle of the canal with wings outstretched and grab hold of a rather large fish. It tried twice to get a good hold on the fish but it escaped. It sat floating on the surface for perhaps 2 seconds after that and noticed another smaller fish and nailed it and then lifted off from the surface of the water. I would say the heron was out there for close to 10 seconds floating and wings sprawled on the surface. This is a deep canal BTW, part of the intercostal and ocean going boats traverse it commonly. I just thought it odd.....A heron who wants to be a pelican.

Maybe it was just hungry...sort of like a cardinal that nails a mouse under the feeder :o

Really, you seen a cardinal nail a mouse? I would of never thunk it.

I have spent a lot of time in the bush near water and had never seen a heron throw itself into water so deep it couldn't at least stand in it.

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I have a friend that knows an IN ornithologist...cardinals are at the top of there list...gives a new perspective on eating the competition doesn't it.

Interesting. When I used to predator hunt the first thing to show up was blue jays (and here I thought they were just curious)........ then came the owls.

Maybe Hitchcock wasn't so far off after all........... ;)

Cool.  They are wicked killers.  Meat eaters all the way baby!  Hoping that Heron shows up soon up here in MN.  Last year saw my first, last week of April...but it was an early spring.  I watch them in their rookery for about 2 months each spring/summer.