Some time ago I posted a blog about herons and their behaviour. We live just over a mile from the Grand Union canal and the River Tove is just beyond it, so herons are not unknown in our village. Just over a week ago a heron perched on the roof of house in our High Street for over an hour. We presumed that it was eying up the local garden ponds but we saw no action.
Then yesterday morning we drew back the curtains in our bedroom, looked over towards the flat roof of our garage, and got quite a shock. A heron was on the roof trying to cope with a large brightly coloured goldfish. Although the fish appeared dead from the start (it didn't move), because of its size the heron took several attempts to swallow it. I photographed the whole episode through glass so the images are not the best; I wasn't going to open a window and disturb the bird and get cold.
The video below is a slideshow from my photos.
Heron Eating a Large Goldfish
In the penultimate slide the fish is lodged in the bird's throat. After swallowing the fish the heron stayed on the roof for a few minutes, presumably to settle its stomach! It then took off in a very laboured manner. We will have to ask our neighbours to see of they are missing any fish.
When I posted the video on You Tube I noticed that there was also a Heron eats Goldfish video. In that video the fish is still moving!
