Photo Posting #3 - Cormorant Fishing

The following picture sequence -

Lead to my thinking of the 2 phrases -

"Sometimes We Take On - More Than We Can Chew"

& -

"Some Things Are To Hard To Swallow"

As I'd noticed

While photographing these Feathered-fishers...

That -

When the Cormorant...

(or Snake Bird)

Catches their meal...

(while swimming underwater)

That the fish are often caught sideways....

In the birds beak...

The problem that they'll encounter though....

With this “Sideways” capture...

Is -

“How will They now, get the fish into their mouth?”

(without letting go of it...and thereby allowing it to escape)

And the answer is that-

They'll “Quickly” emerge their head....

Straight upward out of the water...

While at the same time....

Throwing the captured-fish upward into the air…..

(as seen in the photos below)

Which means that

In actually fact -

They're having to -

Catch the fish “Twice”

I'd also noticed that,

Occasionally -

They might find that they've

Clearly gotten themselves into a rather

Awkward Predicament

(as show in the picture below)

By them opting to try "Spear-fishing" for a change

As the question now is -

How does one un-shish-kabob their speared catch

On other occasions,

Whenever - the side-ways captured fish,

Is clearly,

To “BIG”

For doing the...

A) “Catch The Fish While Swimming Underwater"...

And then -

B) "Toss it Into The Air" -

Followed by-

C) "Now, Catch it Again in Mid Air" -

And Then Finally -

"Just swallow"

The small finned-morsel-meal.

The fisherman now has a different issue to deal with...

As shown in the next photo -

Of - The "Feathered-Bragger"

While they're obviously flaunting their catch,

While passing by the other local fisherman in their area...

Which explains why -

Whenever "The Catch" is past a certain size....

Then it

(the sideways-captured fish-in-beak)

Will only become bruised...if even that!

Upon that underwater capture.

And will therefore be able to escape....

During the normal, routine - “Mid Air Flipping”

Hence....

If the fish is beyond a certain size....

Then the hunter must come completely out of the water.....

While maintaining a tight grip on it...

(as shown in the next 2 pictures below)

Where they then undergo the process...

Of repetitively hitting the fish up against a hard surface area....

In order to sufficiently stun it - so that the captor then becomes -

The stronger of the two of them

And then- Once they've weakened the fish...

(by hitting it against a hard surface for awhile)

They will then throw it up into the air.

(As he would have done; in the water; with a smaller catch)

So that they can once again....

Catch their -

“Flying-fish”

I'd noticed the other day-

That -

Even though they had thought...

That -

"They'd come out the winner"

That they might still have a problem!

As they'd obviously taking on -

More than they could in fact swallow

On another occasion -

It was a few seconds "After" watching them -

"Finally Manage"

To swallow...

One of their bigger catches

I'd noticed the large bulge in their neck -

(as shown in the pictures below)

That it had formed in his throat!

Which was obviously,

Being caused by the fish....

That they're presently trying to swallow

Which is why - They then - Swam over to the nearest branch,

Climbed up, out of the water onto it,

And then - Once they felt that they're securely in the right position,

They spread his wings wide open.

While (at the same time) keeping their head straight upward.

Where they then - remained in that position, for almost three hours

Now I have always been told in the past

That they are doing this wing spread, for a long period of time;

So that their feathers will be able to dry properly

However - after watching the timing of the wing spread ritual,

And the way in which, it would usually "Always"

Follow the time periods, in which the bird had caught a rather large fish

I am beginning to wonder,

If this ritual -

(Of the wings being spread out, while the head is being tipped upward)

Is actually being done;

Like it is by the other snake-bird in the photo below;

So that the bird will be able to properly digest the -

"Stunned"

But "Not Dead Yet" fish?

Which then made me wonder.....

And ask myself the closing question on today's posting -

"Do birds burp?"

As I know that human's who behave in this type of a eating-manner,

Will usually openly share with others,

Quite a loud belching-sound;

Shortly after, they've tried to digest, a really big portion of food!

Like the fellow in the photo below, is about to do!

Signed

Mary Not Me

at - whatisthenameofmyblog.com