I watched this heron at Lake Martin eat 5 crawfish before I was able to get series in the open. Here is one in the series where it was flipping the crawfish after pulling off the legs and claws.
Would fill flash have helped to freeze the action better?
April '07 early morning
Canon 20D
Canon 500mm f/4L IS
1/250s, f/4.0, iso400
Av mode
Eval metering
No Flash
I'm pretty weak on flash, so I'll leave that to the experts, but personally, I think that the tiny bit of motion blur on the crawfish adds a lot to the image.
I don't mind the motion blur on the flipped prey, but too bad it is slightly apparent on the Heron. I like the nictating membrane here...all part of the feeding behaviour.
What a lovely capture, the blur or movement helps tell the story. If I were to use flash was to lit up your subject's colors and texture but not as main light.