“Frog’s Waterloo”

This American Bittern was amazingly patient as it stood out in plain sight on a shallow/muddy, almost dried up, waterway, at the Ridgefield NWR, Aug. 29, 2014.  There were shallow pools of water around but the bird started out standing on a dry patch, feet motionless and its head slowly turning back and forth for over 10 minutes.  I stayed around out of curiosity because I knew the bird wasn’t about to get a fish at this location.  After 11 minutes of virtual stillness, it took a few steps forward (toward me) and began poking its bill into the muck, coming up with only a few small morsels of ‘something.’  All of a sudden it poked the mud again and extracted a good-sized frog and swallowed it within 5 seconds.   This is one of the frames from this hunting sequence.    Canon 5D Mark III, 1/1000, f6.3, ISO 800, 700mm, 6:20 p.m., distance about 100 feet.