Coordinated Anhinga

[Dan Fleming]

I watched this Anhinga fish for over an hour. In that time he managed to spear, with his arrow-sharp bill, in succession, two catfish. Once impaled on the beak I watched as he paddled atop the water, fish wiggling on the beak, and climbed up on this rotting fallen tree. He proceeded to slam the fish repeatedly against the log until it stopped moving. Then he disengaged the dead fish from his bill and grasped it in his mouth. He then began tossing the fish up in the air and catching it, multiple times. Perhaps six or seven times he did this until the fish was just right, head first, and then he swallowed it whole. He went on to reprise the exact same performance one additional time. I hope you enjoy. C & C welcome. I did do some cloning of distracting branches off the log and blurred the bg a bit in PP. I sharpened the bird selectively for the web. Adjusted levels, vibrance of colors but no increase in sats.

Canon 1Ds MkII 400mm IS DO lens, Tripod, ISO 320, 1/640s, f/4.0, Av mode, EC -1/3, no flash

[Grace Scalzo]

Great action image! You words enhance the already interesting image.

[arash_hazeghi]

You caught the peak moment, fish up in the air and beak open! Sharpness is very good and BG is nice. Perch is large and the way it runs through the frame is intrusive but you had no choice over that, well done and thanks for sharing.