Anhinga, Round One
Today I went for a walk along the river at lunch, needing to just get out and clear my head of work. For the first time in I don't know how long, I didn't take my camera. It was cloudy, I was just taking a short walk, and couldn't be bothered.
As I walked along, an anhinga popped up about 10 feet out in the river with a small fish speared in it's bill. Anhinga have a body a bit larger than a duck that floats very low in the water. Their neck is like a snake and the beak is needle shaped and about 3" long. The silvery fish, about the length of the bird's beak, was speared cleanly through the middle of the body.
The anhinga worked it around, popped it up in the air, and swallowed it on the way down. He then smoothly dived back under the water looking for new fish. I don't know if I'll ever get to see that again so close up. Next time I'll have a camera.
Anhinga, Round Two
On the way home, I saw another anhinga, this time in a tree in the mangrove. I had my camera this time but having a camera is of limited use if you can't use it properly. The light was low and I had left a polarizing filter on from the last time I used it. Having a polarizing filter on your lens in low light is like wearing sunglasses when it gets dark. Needless to say the pictures aren't too good. All this despite the fact that I got down in the mangrove to take the picture wearing my dress shoes.
Oh well, if you want to see what an anhinga looks like, here is a picture I pasted behind Yebisu a while back: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v661/fmilburn/?action=view¤t=FHM_8915Anhinga.jpg
This fine fellow was sitting on the pelican statue on the piling in the river below where we live.
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