by Rey Wells
We took advantage of a nice day and visited Leesburg, Florida. Two of my favorite venues are there. One is Venetian Gardens. It consists of strips of land and water extending along the shore of a large lake. The other is Ski Beach Restaurant, which is on the lake and is adjacent to Venetian Gardens.
After a nice outdoor lunch, we stepped into Venetian Gardens. Before we could even cross the first footbridge, I spied an Anhinga that had just waddled ashore with a large panfish. Here it is. Note the bird’s bright green eye ring. This is a breeding season field mark of a male Anhinga. Although early January would seem to be early for that, there it was.
After a few moments, the predator flipped the fish into its gaping maw. The action is shown here. It turned out that this fish was a great challenge due to the depth of its body. The bird struggled repeatedly to swallow it. This is the shortest fish that I have seen that caused such difficulty for an Anhinga. I have more than one photograph of them subduing fish that were longer than themselves and that they had zero chance of swallowing.
On the fast divided highway while heading home, a scene suddenly unfolded high in the sky in front of us that I will long remember. A white gull was being followed closely by a slightly smaller bird. Then the smaller bird made an unsuccessful strike at the gull. I realized then that the attacking bird had to be a Cooper’s Hawk. They turned and headed east. We were in the fast lane going west. They disappeared above the windshield. I was conflicted but continued on. It all happened very quickly. Had I taken a risk and made a turnout onto the grassy center median, I might have witnessed a hawk taking down a gull and might even have a photograph of it. Having missed that opportunity will bother me for some time. Still, it was a special nature moment that I got to see, at least in part.
Countless real life dramas play out every day in the animal kingdom. I’m happy that I can still go out and be a witness to some. I’m even happier when I’m able to photograph one of them.