Never eat anything bigger than your head

We bought a shiny new kayak a few weeks ago, and we finally got to take it out for its maiden voyage. We went up to Moraine State Park (a favorite of mine) and went looking for our buddy, the Great Egret. We found him at his usual spot, across the lake from the waterfowl observatory, but we couldn't get very close due to the abundance of lily pads and weeds. We did, however, find an osprey farther in the lake, and I got a shot of  him taking off, and then I noticed the nice fish he had! If I had noticed sooner, I would've asked him to share, since it was lunchtime and my stomach was already growling.

We fished for a bit, and I noticed a kingfisher looking pretty sitting silhouetted against the sky..

We head out towards the other end of the lake then, fishing along the way and watching for any birds. We see some Great Blue Herons out in the distance, as well as some Mallards.
Then I see our friend flying and land on the other side of the lake from us. We head on over, and see he's hunting. He's so involved in hunting, he doesn't even give us a thought.

 

In fact, we had paddled a bit ahead of him, and he got within 8 feet of our boat! I thought he was going to walk right over us! Then he took off and landed about twelve feet behind us and continued his hunt.
 

Merely an appetizer!

Ooooh I see dinner!

 We followed, since he wasn't concerned with us, and we were in for a treat! Look at the size of that one!

Mom always said never eat anything bigger than your head...

My hubby and I were betting back and forth "He's not going to get that down!" I bet he would.  I heard of one in Florida eating a crocodile once.

...I'll prove her wrong! Just watch!

Sure enough, after much effort on his part, the fish was in the gullet!

Now just the tail..

*Gulp*

 

Now for dessert!

 And I thought that osprey was hungry..

Before we left to get some dinner too, we did see a few unexpected folks,

Yellow rumped warbler, and a Black-throated green warbler! Didn't expect to see them from our kayak. They seem to be the most abundant of the warblers these last few weeks. A nice ending to a nice day of birding!