Mr. Blue stalks his prey
Text and photos by Mary Walton
Coated with scum and a sprinkling of debris, the western end of Fletcher Lake does not invite fishing. Unless, it seems, you’re the lake’s resident Great Blue Heron. For it was there I spied him one morning last week and stopped for a closer look. Mr. Blue stood motionless, a pose he can hold for many minutes.
Then suddenly he wheeled, turned and strode resolutely eastward, his long neck stretched out, his sharp beak aimed at an underwater prey.
He struck! And came up with a plump, red-headed fish. (By the way, anyone recognize this fish?)
The heron did not immediately swallow the creature, perhaps waiting for its death throes to end. After all, who wants a live fish thrashing about in your gullet? For perhaps 10 minutes Mr. Blue held the fish in his beak. Occasionally he dunked it.
Then he began to swallow. And then it was gone. Mr. Blue’s neck became engorged, like a boa swallowing a mouse. Breakfast!
SOUNDTRACK by The Fleetwoods:
This is amazing. About one month ago Eileen and I went to Brock’s in Colt’s Neck to get two new fish for our OG pond. We chose two identical to the one in Mr. Blue’s beak. They are a kind of shubunkin—a relative of goldfish.
We put the two fish with the silver bodies and bulbous red hats into our pond, and the next day one had vanished. The other one survived and got bigger.
It looks like the blue heron or some other bird may have snatched our guy and dropped him into Fletcher Lake. And now Mr. Blue ate him. At least the mystery may be solved.
I love that Great Blue Heron. I always looked for him while walking by the lake & took a few nice shots of him when he posed on one leg. Definitely looked like a goldfish relative! Hope the mystery is solved.
Amazing that the Great Blue plucked something so bright and lovely from that dirty pond (let’s face it, Fletcher is hardly a lake). More amazing that it is the missing shubunkin from Paul & Eileen’s pond . . . and MOST amazing that Mary happened along at just that moment. Nice camera work, Mary!
Great capture of the Great Blue Heron. It looks like he caught a redcap oranda goldfish. http://www.petgoldfish.net/oranda-goldfish.html Also, see:
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/goldfish/RedcapOranda.php
Looks like one of Blogfinger’s koi….
Someone probably dumped the koi/carp from their seasonal fish pond. Very hardy fish. There is a heron or crane of some variety that lives on Wesley Lake. I wonder what it’s catching?
I’ve seen that heron on Wesley Lake a time or two. I have assumed it is the same heron one sees on Fletcher, and that it divides its time between the two lakes. My main reason for thinking so is that once I saw a blue heron flying right over my house, coming from the direction of Wesley and heading in the direction of Fletcher. I suppose that same heron might also inhabit other nearly lakes on a part-time basis. For all we know, Mr. Blue might have as many lakes as Michael Bloomberg has houses.
Darn. Will have to cover the koi pond with a net now. Anybody have a spare alligator decoy?
Don’t worry about the Koi. If the bird has been in Wesley Lake, it won’t live long… OK, that’s probably an exageration, but I’m wondering why the lakes on either side of the Grove look so insalubrious? Who is responsible for maintaining them and keeping the trash picked out, etc? Does the water ever get changed (looks kinda oily). Even my 5 year old said she wouldn’t want to fall in!
Just wondering.
I had an aquarium in my New York apartment with about eight of those redcaps back in the mid seventies. They looked so spectacular at night when the aquarium light was the only illumination in the room. Even though I had great chairs from Mexico, a pricey white canvas sofa, abstract paintings and photographs on the wall, visitors usually only remembered the fish!
Years ago, people used to fish on Wesley Lake! People used to swim in it! I remember, back in the moldy oldie days when the Swan Boats used to share the lake with little putt putt boats and real swans. I can still vividly see that layer of oil that used to cover the lake and people swimming in the west end. Aren’t there supposed to be some aeration fountains working?
What luck for you, Mary. Congratulations on getting these shots. So many times I’ve watched Mr. Blue in Fletcher Lake, but have never seen him catch anything.
There are also a lot of what I think are carp in that lake. The big fish that you can always see right near the surface? There have got to be hundreds of them. It doesn’t seem like anything feeds on them. I’ve seen osprey’s plunge down and catch fish, but it’s usually not a carp.