Heron - Eel before me!

Heron - Eel before me!, originally uploaded by Wales Birder.

words of the photographer :
"What a totally random day, went into Chester to get my camera sensor cleaned, and while walking down the Street by mine A peregrine flew straight over head at tree top height, totally buzzing off that! Got into chester took the camera in and met up with a mate, after that headed down towards the river and was told by a friendly photographer there was Herons about, which I thought was the usual couple but he said close and showed me full frame images with the 70-200mm F4 lens. He said it was the Salmon Run! I got closer to action and my first surprise was a pair of Mandarin Ducks on the River, not a bird I've seen in chester before or on the Dee in general.

There were 7 Herons on the River, and numerous gulls and lots of jumping Salmon, massive ones at that. I moved over the other side and got fantastic close views of a Heron that clearly spotted something dropped below my position then was back up with a great surprise ( for me at least) .. an eel! It wrestled the Eel dropping it a few times before finally gulping it down."