Great Blue Heron

Everyone knows that herons eat fish, but who knew they also hunt rodents? It may not be pleasant to watch them spear gophers and swallow them whole, but nature can be as brutal as beautiful. In this situation, I turned around to see the heron holding the gopher with its beak, so I had to react quickly.

My main objective was to select an aperture that would keep both the heron and gopher in focus but separate them from a busy backdrop. The movement and distance made it difficult, but I got some images. I’m unsure if the heron was struggling to put the gopher out of its misery because it took forever to attempt to swallow it, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That was the most enormous gopher I’d seen in my life.