A frog in your throat, literally (pic included)

[mcary]

I was at my favorite little pond today hoping to make a nice Green Heron image or an action shot of some of the young mallards that live there. I was hanging out by the mallards when I noticed the mother dive very quickly and suddenly under water. When she came up she immediately began swimming away from her brood with something fairly substantial in her mouth. As she was trying to reposition it in her bill, I noticed she had caught a frog. She then proceeded to swallow it whole, head first, just like a heron would. I had never seen this before and was a little shocked. So, I hung around and a couple of her young ones repeated the behavior. I was able to get one decent shot of the action. It's by no means one of my better images, but it captures something that was new to me. Hope you enjoy.

[Steve Foss]

That's a nice shot and a nice story, my man. I never knew dabblers ate frogs, either. Thanks for sharing, and for helping me learn something new today.

[floating minnow]

Really nice catch Michael!

[buzzsaw]

WOW!! Great work, she was probably just moving it to the other side of the pond with the other frogs.

[hobbydog]

Great capture. I have shot mallards that are stuffed full of minnows, snails and crawfish but never a frog.

[Dbl]

Nice catch Michael. Never witnessed anything like that from a duck!

[mcary]

I had taken a couple of shots of the mother with the frog literally half way down her throat with the legs hanging out the sides of her bill, but unfortunately they're really soft. The mother was a bit outside the effective focal range of my lens combo. It seems that if the subject is outside a certain distance the autofocus does not function effectively and this was the case with the hen. It would have made a pretty cool shot in my opinion. I guess, now that I know, I'll just have to keep trying to get a better one for all of you.

[Ely Lake Expert]

Thats quite the cool picture, I didn't know ducks ate frogs.

[Headin' North]

That was really nice Michael.I didn't know ducks ate frogs either.

[buzzsaw]

Even Woodies do it! I came across this picture and thought I'd share it... not mine

[Muskie-searcher]

I watched a Blue Heron spear and eat a chipmunk once. That would have made a pretty sweet sequence of pictures.