Dear all,
I was at Bough Beech Reservoir in Kent on 31st March when my attention wandered to a Carrion Crow perched in a willow one metre above the water on the North Lake. Its attention was quite clearly taken up with what I thought would be an object floating on the water. However, to my surprise, it suddenly dropped into the water belly-first, grabbed a small silvery fish a few centimetres long and returned to the willow branch with its catch flapping in its bill. The fish was swallowed in one gulp. The Carrion Crow moved away from the branch was lost from view.
I wondered whether this was an example of this bird being an opportunist or had it adopted this tactic for obtaining food at the reservoir?
Is this sighting unusual or has anyone else seen a member of the crow family catch a fish like this?
I was at Bough Beech Reservoir in Kent on 31st March when my attention wandered to a Carrion Crow perched in a willow one metre above the water on the North Lake. Its attention was quite clearly taken up with what I thought would be an object floating on the water. However, to my surprise, it suddenly dropped into the water belly-first, grabbed a small silvery fish a few centimetres long and returned to the willow branch with its catch flapping in its bill. The fish was swallowed in one gulp. The Carrion Crow moved away from the branch was lost from view.
I wondered whether this was an example of this bird being an opportunist or had it adopted this tactic for obtaining food at the reservoir?
Is this sighting unusual or has anyone else seen a member of the crow family catch a fish like this?