Thursday 10 January 2013

Green Heron fishing at Wellfleet, MA



A couple of photos taken in July last year at Wellfleet, MA. This Green Heron had positioned a red (oak?) leaf into this shallow water presumably to act as bait for its fish prey. Tool use like this is quite commonly observed in this species. The leaf drifted slowly to one side but the fish came close any way. I watched it for some time but saw no more tool use, but several successful catches. The water level was low as a sluice was being repaired and the concentration of small fish made easy pickings.