The Heron and the Squirrel

On Countryside Day, 9th September, 2001, a group of about 20 people stood watching a most unusual site by Malcolm's scrape. An immature heron had caught and killed a young squirrel and he was faced with the problem of swallowing it.

He was so absorbed with this challenge that he did not care that a crowd of people were watching as it took twenty minutes to get it down. First of all it managed to get it head first into its mouth. For some time the squirrel's tail was hanging out and then with a big effort it swallowed it all.

You could see the big lump in its throat. Luckily for us, Diane Gray recorded this drama on her digital camera and her shots can be seen here.