Riverside delicacies

Yellow-crowned night heron with snake

Great blue heron with ray

© 2012 Lydia Hinshaw

 ORMOND BEACH, FL --The weather has turned particularly pleasant this week, with clear, cool days and cooler nights.

 In the late afternoons, we've been taking the cameras down to the Halifax River to see what birds will be cooperative.

 Two days in a row, we've watched birds struggle with meals they can't figure out how to eat.

 In the top picture, a yellow-crowned night heron tries to kill a small snake, slapping it against the water over and over again.  A yellow-crowned night heron normally eats shellfish, which is why it has a bill shaped like an oyster knife.

 It tormented the snake for a while, as another night heron and a snowy egret lurked nearby, ready to claim the prize if our hero should let go.  The bird finally took his snake and flew away.  By the time we followed him to the other side of the bridge, he no longer had the snake, so we don't know whether he actually ate it.

 In the bottom picture, a great blue heron struggles with a small stingray.  Great blue herons easily swallow small fish and, yes, the occasional snake.

 With his pointed beak, the heron can impale quite large fish, or rays, but he has no way to rip these conquests into pieces small enough to be swallowed.  The great blue needs the help of something with a hooked beak, say an osprey.  But ospreys usually insist on eating in high spots, and they aren't big on sharing.

 This great blue finally gave up on the ray, and searched for a more manageable meal.