Big Predator and Tiny Prey

When I was taking the following photos I didn't actually realize that I was witnessing a predator catching and killing a tiny prey animal. Once I downloaded the photos and took a close look at the action, I realized that I had recorded a very young fish being captured and eaten by a Great egret. When I looked at the photos close-up, I felt sorry for the little fish. He was doing his best to keep from being eaten, but failed.

Still...it's a part of the cycle of life that Mother Nature has dictated. The following sad drama took place on the south beach of Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County, Florida, on the Gulf Coast.

I had been photographing the egret. It was at this point where I realized he'd brought something out of the water that he had captured in his beak.

It was only when I got a chance to sit in the shade and expand the image on the camera screen that I saw the bird had nabbed a little baby puffer fish. A puffer fish defends itself by ingesting air and puffing up like a balloon in an attempt to make a predator let go of it, thinking the fish would be too big to swallow.

The poor little puffer fish was puffed up as big as he could make himself. He was trying like heck to make the giant bird think he was too big to eat.

But he was just too tiny for the ploy to work. The egret swallowed him right down. "Gung!"

And then after eating that tiny, itsy-bitsy morsel, the egret turned and continued on his way, searching for more fish to catch and eat. Poor little puffer fish!