Fwd: BC Night Heron eats giant fish in Prospect

-----Original Message-----
From: adamwelz@.com
To: Steve Nanz ; Peter Dorosh ; 
Sent: Wed, May 7, 2014 2:11 pm
Subject: BC Night Heron eats giant fish in Prospect

Hi All

Today I watched a Black-crowned Night Heron eat a fish as long as the heron's own body. I was hanging around the back gate of the Lower Pool when I spotted the heron on the far bank with the fish, which was still alive. The heron stood motionless with the fish in its bill, seemingly waiting for it to die. It occasionally fell out of the heron's mouth and flopped around, at which the heron would pick it up again. After about ten minutes the heron dragged the fish behind a tangle of vegetation and slowly gulped it down, which took a few minutes. It then walked around with the fish's tail sticking out of its bill for a few more minutes before jumping up into one of the trees overhanging the Lower Pool, looking very fat.

This is one of the weirdest wildlifey things I've seen in the park.

Anyone know what sort of fish this is? The image I've attached is it's a small cropped section of the original picture, so it doesn't get any better I'm afraid (like I said, the bird was pretty far away).

To make things more exciting I later ran into an undergrowth fire that someone had started on the slope of Lookout above the Wellhouse. After tweeting it out someone must have called the FDNY, because they rocked up about 15 minutes later -- or at least one lost, exhausted fireman did. They had no idea how to get their firetruck up the hill which meant I got to ride in it to give the driver directions. My six year-old self was thrilled.

Just another awesome day in PP!

Adam