The Opportunist

[Gabriela Plesea]

Witnessed this event during a visit to the Kruger Park sometime in 2011. The river was far from the road but we stopped to look at this Saddlebilled Stork strolling around the river bank and showing off his gorgeous plumage. He soon noticed a small crocodile in the water and started following him so closely. Not knowing much about the behaviour of this bird, I thought it quite brave of the Stork to "stalk" the croc and wondered what was the purpose of him doing so. For the lack of binoculars, I kept looking through my lens and soon was grateful for doing so because I captured some interesting action from the two. The crocodile (who was in fact a juvenile) managed to catch a fish, unfortunately it was too big and he was struggling to swallow it. Large crocodiles normally roll their catch to tear off a piece, in this case the water was too shallow for him to do so. After some time he managed to eventually managed to break off a piece which he could swallow, and as the other piece flew well above the water we were so surprised to see the Saddlebilled Stork trying to grab it...This went on for a period of time and eventually the Stork decided he has had enough - that, after stealing a number of fish from the young crocodile...

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - What a fun and unusual sighting and sequence. Perfect for BPN - Avian and Wildlife combined. Actually 3 species in one.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Rachel!

Should have looked for the RAW and done RP's, these images were taken and processed before I joined BPN. A bit too contrasty and saturated for my liking, but such was my PP work at the time:) Still something interesting and worth sharing.

I really appreciate that you find the time to pop in here, cannot thank you enough. I hope to entertain you with more sequences:w3

Warmest regards,

[William Dickson]

Fantastic sequence Gabriela. The first image is like a beautiful ballerina, then, turns into a predator. Amazing capture, well done

Will

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I don't think people realize how hard it is to catch a sequence. William put it perfectly.:S3:

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear William and Jackie,

Thank you so much for viewing and kind comments- really appreciated:5

Warmest regards,

[Diane Miller]

Incredible!! Must have been awesome to see! Great captures, too!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Diane, so grateful for your comments and time to view, much appreciated!

Kind regards,