Grey Heron with a real mouthfull

Grey Heron Ardea cinerea Scottish Highlands

The grey heron has long been known as one of natures great fishers, I have observed them many times fishing at the edge of ponds and on the margins of rivers. They will usually take small fish and eels and occasionally some thing a little bigger. I took this sequence of images at a small fishpond in the Highlands of Scotland. The heron landed at the side of the pond walked into the water and struck this rainbow trout, walked back to the bank and swallow the fish with little effort, shook itself down and flew away again.

What make this astonishing is the size of the fish, the fish must have been in the region of three pounds in weight and the ease in which it swallowed such a large fish. The body weight is the heron is around the three pounds mark and when eating such a large fish I find it incredible that it can just fly away effortlessly.

Grey Heron lands

Ron McCombe

Ron McCombe, A professional wildlife photographer, Ron lives in the Scottish Borders. He has travelled around Europe, North America and Canada in pursuit of his photographic goals. He concentrates his photography around the Borders Region of Scotland but travels up to the Highlands and Islands around Scotland running workshops in these areas. An award-winning photographer, Ron won the inaugural Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2010. His work can be seen in books, magazines and newspapers. He is passionate about Scotland and its amazing wildlife and promotes it in his lectures and illustrated talks all over the UK.

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