The sky was covered with beautiful white clouds but
pockets of blue and aqua skies peeked through. The weatherman had mentioned a
chance of shower today, but the lighting was so beautiful, I hurried down to the
Lagoon to take advantage and prepared to keep my camera dry if we did get
rain...
Looking out at the observation deck on the trail west of
the visitor center, a Great Egret flies in and lands on the far bank of the
tide channel. He had just caught a odd looking fish in
the middle of the pickleweeds...
The prey appeared to be a fish in the Goby family... *( 1,900
species)... called The Long-jawed mudsucker...( Gillichthys
mirabilis ).
These dark blotchy colored fish have beady little eyes and
a huge mouth that go all the way back to their gill covers. They are
about 8 inches long and spend
their whole life in a small area of a mudflat. *They have been known to live out of
water for 6 to 8 days
if kept moist. ( * All the info for the Goby fish is from
the very interesting article in the Berkeley Daily Planet titled "Mudsuckers my be ugly, but they have value by Joe Eaton.)
Marine Biologists study them and monitor for the health of
the waterways .. such as bays and estuaries. These Gobies are used as sentinels to monitor for
carcinogens and other toxic substances that may enter the waterways.
The Long-jawed Mudsucker is wiggling and appears to be
really slimy.. the Great Egret is having some difficultly holding on. The
fish keeps sliding down towards the tip of the Egret's
beak.
Finally, after fussing and re-positioning the fish, the Great
Egret is ready to swallow the Mudsucker.
One more toss and the Egret gulps it down with no
problem...
He soon departs for the South end of the lagoon...
It may have been the sudden departure of the Great Egret
that made a lone female Mallard to take flight but I did have my camera set and
ready for the grab... here is
about 1.5 seconds of photos showing the female
Mallard as she pushes out of the water to get airborne... to the last frame
just before she flies past me.
Gets forward momentum by running on water..few big strides..
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ReplyDeleteThank you for your very nice comments about my blogs. Hope you stop and visit often.
DeleteNice capture here! So the Egret was able to successfully gulp that decent-sized mudsucker (despite the wriggling and slime, ah!)down it's long throat okay?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if it's bad the bird consumes this fish since the biologists use it for monitoring. Should the mudsucker be saved?
-Kyle
Thanks for your comment. I feel that everything in nature is there for a predator to prey on or to be a prey for another. It rings true to the tiniest form of life to the largest. Nothing is ever wasted. Nature is a beautiful thing. Bird consumption of this prey is part of the monitoring.
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