A Very Lucky Escape

[Ryewolf]

The local heron that fishes on the weir at Whalley....

A female mallard and her ducklings, there are 5 altoghter, the other two were just out of frame....

A few minutes later she took her ducklings a little too close to where the heron was fishing and it flew over to make a grab for them, this was her seeing the heron off. Luckily herons are a bit clumsy in flight and she was able to chase it off, had it been one of the larger gulls she probably would have one or more of them. At first I thought the heron had managed to grab two, but I saw all five again later as she took them downstream...

It's not the greatest of shots, but the whole thing was over in a few seconds....

[David995031]

These are terrific. Love the heron in number one.

[Ryewolf]

Thanks David, it's a regular here and seems to prefer this particular spot to fish from....

[Clicker]

It is sometimes really hard to watch Nature take it’s course isn’t t  it ... the balance is so delicate. ...we interfere at our peril .  Two Mallards on our pond has 26 ducklings between them but within a week or so the crows and a fox a had  reduced them to  just one ...  it seems that they produce so many to act as a larder for other species ..... We were taught this in school I know but it still is difficult to watch it happening every year .... 

 

[Ryewolf]

Yes, it is difficult to watch, I saw the mother taking her ducklings closer to where the heron was and I was saying to myself "No, don't go over there". Herons are predators, if a bit clumsy in flight, but still predators and I've seen them take fish and eels much  larger than a duckling. To be honest there would have been nothing I could have done as they were about 60-100ft away across a river. The last shot you can see how quick the mother duck moved in comparison to the heron, they might be quick against fish, but in aerial attacks they are quite slow. I was really surprised that the heron hadn't grabbed any of the ducklings.

[CMunzel]

I didn’t know herons kill and eat ducklings. I thought they only eat smaller creatures: insects, tadpoles etc. I wonder if our herons in Australia are the same.

[Ryewolf]

18 minutes ago, CMunzel said:

I wonder if our herons in Australia are the same.

The Grey Heron I've photographed here stands about 3ft tall (probably more with it's neck) with a 2meter wingspan so they are quite big birds, they will also eat frogs and toads and if you see them in fields they are looking for rodents.