Common Nature

We were having lunch one day when we looked out the window and realized a heron was about to chow down too. Unfortunately the fish it had caught seemed to be stuck. We were fascinated to see when we saw this photo that apparently it spears the fish through the gills. If you look closely you can see via the fish's throat that the heron's bill is all the way through.





So it was attempting to shake the fish off the bill so that it could grab its head instead.



The heron finally got the fish into position and in it went in one go! I have no idea what kind of digestive system it has that it can just deal with all portions of a fish like that (the heron is big but that fish was not small!) Does it poop the skeleton out? The head?







Also as someone who always ends up wearing their meals, I was amused that the lake weed caught on the fish was still hanging out of the heron's mouth.