Interaction: Bringing home the bass

[Keith Carver]

In six years of photographing loons on Damariscotta Lake, this afternoon's loon interaction with a good-sized largemouth bass is a first! The loon wrangled the bass for ten minutes, made a valiant try to swallow it head first (I have photos), but finally gave it up as a lost cause. Loons routinely bring back minnow-sized fish to the chick (see Randy Stout's post) but I had never observed anything like this before.

Overcast conditions, light showers.

Techs: 1DM3, 700 mm, ISO 400, evaluative metering -0.33 EC: f/5.6, 1/4000 sec

Post: cropped to 60% of original, some NR on the loon's head

C&C appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

Wow Keith:

That is a big one. At least he didn't try to feed it to the chick!
Was the bass fighting, or had he stabbed it and killed it?
I would say the biggest fish I have seen them swallow was about 6" long. This one must have been really hungry.

Would love to see some of the picks of him trying to swallow it.

Really neat story telling image.

Thanks for sharing!

Randy

[Keith Carver]

Wow Keith:

That is a big one. At least he didn't try to feed it to the chick!
Was the bass fighting, or had he stabbed it and killed it?
I would say the biggest fish I have seen them swallow was about 6" long. This one must have been really hungry.

Would love to see some of the picks of him trying to swallow it.

Really neat story telling image.

Thanks for sharing!

Randy

Randy, I think the loon had stabbed the bass, but the fish was definitely fighting. It was quite a show. Here's another photo in the sequence - loon tries to swallow bass. I clipped the loon's tail, but got this fish's tail!

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Keith:

Would have loved to have seen that interaction. Your pictures are the next best thing.

Cheers

Randy

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Keith That is one ambitious bird !!!!!! They should be able to gauge what they can eat?.. this is way larger than anything reasonable !!! Glad you were able to catch the action !!! Excellent !!!

[Stu Bowie]

Keith, that is one large fish, more than enough for the whole family. With regards to the overall image, I would maybe take a bit off the top. TFS.

[Alan Murphy]

A great document shot.

[Jim Fenton]

This is really cool Keith...

Love the low contrast lighting and the largemouth that's about to become dinner.

Reminds me of one I watched last winter in Wells Maine that took a small lobster...whole.

[Fabs Forns]

Amazing action, I can't believe he could have eaten it. A classic of bring more than you can chew :)
Shame on the quality of the light :(

[Hendri Venter]

Wow amazing. Two great images to proof what you witnessed. TFS.