Great Blue Heron

Here is a remarkably tame Great Blue Heron that strolls down the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge dike. We have seen it at least twice, the first image was taken on 7 November, and the second on 12 November 2019. The bird was calmly, slowly, methodically hunting garter snakes. A passerby on the first day showed me a photo of the heron with a snake wrapped around its bill. The snake in the second image barely fit down the heron’s gullet. Great Blue Herons mainly eat fish, but, in fact, will take nearly animal they can swallow—amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, mammals, birds, and even carrion. Vennesland and Butler (2011) speculate that the diet reflects prey abundance. These authors also report that occasionally herons choke to death on large prey items!