This article features a selection of images documenting a heron catching a snake at one of the ponds at Hendrie Valley. These photographs were captured in a 24 minute time frame… counted from when the heron first attacked the snake until it flew off with its catch.

These images are graphic and may not be appropriate for folks who are squeamish about some of the brutality found in nature.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge. To view this article in a range of other languages click on the Canadian flag in the upper right hand corner. 

A friend and I decided to visit Hendrie Valley late in the morning and arrived at close to 11:30 AM. After surveying a number of typical shooting locations and capturing a few images, we spotted a Great Blue Heron fishing in one of the ponds. We focused our efforts on photographing this specific bird as it went on with its business, capturing 7 or 8 small fish.

As the heron continued to feed around the perimeter of the pond I moved my shooting position to a concrete pier that juts out slightly into the pond. This was in anticipation of the heron continuing to move in that general direction.

I sat on my short stool and waited for several minutes. My anticipation was rewarded by the heron moving directly in front of me… giving me an excellent shooting angle.

The heron looked studious, then suddenly the bird’s head plunged into the shallow water of the pond. It resurfaced with a water snake in its bill. I had not witnessed this specific heron feeding behaviour before, so I began firing off bursts of images to capture the action.

The heron struggled trying to get control of the snake as it writhed about attempting to escape.

The water snake momentarily freed itself from the heron’s initial grasp.

Undaunted the heron continued to attack the water snake… which managed to drop back into the water a number of times.

Each time the snake dropped back into the water the heron would pause and refocus its efforts…then resume its attack.

The water snake tried to flee a number of times and was pursued by the heron. You can see the heron’s nictitating membrane has been drawn over its eye as a protective action.

The struggle continued with the water snake doing its best to foil the heron’s attack.

At various points it would attempt to wrap itself around the heron’s beak, seemingly to avoid getting impaled by it.

The heron was relentless with its attacks and tried to grab the water snake in its beak.

Then thrash it against the surface of the water… perhaps to stun the reptile.

Some of these whiplash type movements were quite dramatic.

The struggle continued with the heron having to readjust its grip on the snake’s body a few times as it continued to thrash it on the surface of the water.

The water snake would strike back at the heron whenever it had the chance.

If you look at the above image closely you’ll see that the snake has freed itself from the grasp of the heron. It dropped into the water and tried to flee underwater.

To balance itself, the heron extended its wings and kept pursuing the water snake.

The heron caught the water snake once again. At this point the heron was only 12.8 metres from my shooting position.

The whiplash attacks continued relentlessly.

At one point the water snake tried to bite onto the upper portion of the heron’s beak. As you can see in the next four images that follow, the heron continued using whiplash movements with the snake.

Since the heron had been attacking the snake for about 22 minutes, at this point I thought that the snake would have already reached a state of exhaustion.

Surprisingly, the snake kept trying to fight back… although not as vigorously.

Even when the heron had a firm grip on the snake’s body, it kept writhing and trying to wiggle free.

I remained seated on my short stool, positioned on the edge of the concrete pier, while all of this action played out directly in front of me. The heron was now at its closest position to me… only about 10 metres away.

The snake’s energy was now pretty much drained from its body.

It could now only muster a few, feeble motions.

Sensing the change in the snake’s energy level, the heron loosened it grip on the snake’s body slightly, and positioned the snake’s head in its beak. At this point I was expecting the heron to begin to swallow the snake head first.

Even though further escape attempts were futile, the snake still tried to bite the heron’s beak. This may have thwarted the snake being swallowed right at that moment.

After spending 24 minutes trying to subdue the snake, the heron finally decided to fly off with its prize. Perhaps to dislodge it from its beak, and finish it off on some dry land.

Observing the brutalities of nature can sometimes be difficult to watch. At the same time, there can be a strange fascination when this type of scene plays out directly in front of oneself.

My E-M1X and M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS kit performed wonderfully throughout this entire drama. I shot using a combination of Pro Capture L with Bird Detection AI. I had my Pre-Shutter frames set to 15 and my Frame Limiter set to 20. I used Manual mode with Auto-ISO, and a single small AF point.  A continuous auto-focus frame rate of 18 frames-per-second was used.

As the action unfolded I kept spooling images into temporary memory, and after a specific, aggressive action occurred I fully depressed my shutter release to write those images from temporary memory onto my memory card. This helped reduce my total number of images to some degree (saving me some time in post) although I still captured over 900 photographs of this encounter.

Photographing this heron/snake encounter reinforced a number of  issues for me. The first was the importance of ignoring advice commonly given by some photographers to only go out to photograph birds early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

If I would have followed that common advice, I would have missed this photographic opportunity completely as this encounter began at 12:26 PM in the afternoon.

Our purchase of the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS was also positively reinforced. The lens focused quickly and accurately, handling was superb, and the resulting files required only a modicum of work in post processing. 🙂

Even though my E-M1X bodies are now 6 years old, they still perform extremely well and consistently deliver the handling, ergonomics and performance that I need. There’s no doubt that I’ll be shooting with them for many years to come.

When faced with what could be a once-in-a-lifetime photographic opportunity with this heron/snake encounter… I had 100% confidence that my Olympus/OM gear would deliver for me. And, it did so in spades.

The final issue that this experience reinforced for me, was the importance of observing subjects in nature and trying to anticipate their future movements and actions. If I hadn’t moved my shooting position to the cement pier, any images that I might have captured would have paled next to what I was able to get.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. A combination of Bird Detection AI and Pro Capture L was used for all of the images featured in the article. Pre-Shutter Frames were set to 15 and Frame Limiter was set to 20. Auto ISO and a single, small auto-focus point were used. A Continuous Auto-Focus frame rate of 18 fps was used. This is the 1,459 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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