We spotted this Great Blue Heron along the Reelfoot Lake spillway. Its mind was singly focused on one thing — catching lunch — which it promptly did, and swallowed whole.
“Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals.” ~LL Cool J
walking on a country road 
Great photos. There has been a time or two our herons have been focused enough to ignore how close I was to them, but I’ve never seen ours catch anything. They usually fly long before I’m close enough to see any fishing action.
I have seen them catch tiny silver fish before, but this was the first time to see one catch a regular size fish. It is amazing the precision with which they strike!
Beautiful up-close pictures. Lucky you – there is one at the Park and nearly every morning in milder weather, he stations himself In the same spot to catch fish. I see his beak and face wet from dipping into the water but have yet to see what he caught for breakfast.
Thanks, Linda! It is always fun and interesting to watch nature in action!
Yes it is Rebecca. I went to a different park today that is along the Detroit River. It is much larger and more woodsy than where I routinely go. I went early and it was so peaceful … just nature in action and me to witness it.
Sounds wonderful!
It was very nice. I’m going to share a website I found today, though you may know about it already. I saw a very unusual duck and so I Googled around to find if it was a Michigan duck or had stopped here while migrating. This site you can put in all kinds of attributes and it will tell you what kind of bird it is. It did not help me with the duck though – I could not find an exact match, and I had to Google images instead but found it is a mallard hybrid. Never heard of that, but he was dark brown, nearly black with a speckled breast.
http://whatbird.com/
Thanks for sharing the website! Some birds are so hard to identify. Tennessee has a website that has been very helpful to me called “Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife”. I can almost always find what I am looking for there.
You’re welcome. I was stymied a few years ago when I saw an unusual bird down by the marina. He looked like a heron, but very sleek and much smaller. I looked on different sites to have a name for him for the post to no avail. I sent the photo to the DNR and they told me he was a green heron and it was a good find as they aren’t commonplace here.
Stunning❤️
Thanks!
Great series, thanks.
Thank you! 🙂
Great capture! Thanks for sharing these and all your wonderful pictures.