Safe again on the far side of the canal. The GBH's upper and lower beaks are once again pierced into the catfish, this time the underside.

When it comes to scaled fish GBHs generally juggle the fish around in their mouths until the fish's head is pointing downward (read that: head-first down the GBH's gullet).

On the other hand, when it comes to catfish, once the GBH reels in a catfish and the GBH is on solid ground, the catfish gets tossed on the ground and pierced time and again with the the GBH's (both upper and lower) beak. Once the catfish is quite dead it gets a final wash in the shallow water before getting positioned for the head-first plunge into the digestive process that awaits.

It has always amazed me how a GBH can eat a catfish without suffering internal injuries from a jab from the sharp spines on the catfish's dorsal and pectoral fins.

As a young fisherman I learned the hard way that the spines of a catfish are extremely sharp, and that a wet, thrashing catfish can jab a person several times in no time, resulting in rather painful puncture wounds.

The eyes of the Great Blue Herons are intense. I doubt very much is missed by them.

This is another slightly unusual shot of a GBH. Not long after this bird stood to its full height (see previous posting) it shook itself, not unlike a dog does when it's soaking wet (which this bird was not). The end result was a rather fluffy GBH. The feathers settled down soon enough, but in the meantime I couldn't resist taking this 'bad hair day' shot.

What the ... (#*@^!^@*#)???

Another day at Paynes Prairie ...

It was overcast and quite gusty but all and all, not a bad day. I kept getting closer and closer to this GBH, until finally it had enough of me and took to its wings ...