Still Waiting For The “Hottest” Summer

After the wettest winter, the “hottest” summer is said to be on its way in UK, if you believe what the papers say. Anyway, at the moment, the trees are greener.

the butterflies are in the air,

Peacock

the land is turning into cheerful fields by the bright yellow rapeseed flowers,

and the young herons are getting ready to fly away.

Summer is on its way～

Migrating Birds Are Coming~

The annual arrival of migrating birds has begun in the Mai Po Nature Reserve.

The wintering birds such as cormorants, egrets and herons are plenty. 

The precious Black-faced Spoonbills, an endangered species whose population is under 3000 world wide, are always welcome visitors to Hong Kong. 

This Oriental Stork, another endangered species (a population of a couple of thousand) , has been in Mai Po since the summer according to a fellow HK blogger’s report (http://johnjemi.blogspot.hk/2012/07/oriental-stork-at-mai-po.html). 

The appearance of the Oriental Stork is similar to the European White Stork but larger with a black bill. Here it is with a Grey Heron to indicate its relative size. 

This bird feels at home in the reserve and certainly doesn’t want to share with anyone else.

The Grey herons, on the other hand,  are keeping a close eye on the fish in the mangroves. 

A little fighter---Fish vs Grey heron

Herons, especially the Grey heron, are famous for their fishing skills, but not if they meet their match.

I saw this Grey heron fishing in a shallow river. 

After a while, it caught a small fish. 

As the heron was about to swallow it, suddenly, the fish struggled and slipped into the water. 

The heron picked it up immediately. To its surprise, the little fish was not prepared to give up without a fight, and managed to flee again. 

I guess the heron was too hungry to let the small fish go. It captured the fish from the water again for the third time! 

I thought this must be the end of the fish’s life. To my amazement, this time the tiny fish fought even harder. 

Then suddenly the fish stopped moving. 

The heron (and I)  thought that it had finally got its meal. Unexpectedly, to my astonishment the little creature started moving again and slipped through the heron’s mouth, 

and escaped into the water! The heron seemed too shocked to respond. 

It finally gave up fishing altogether and left. The whole event lasted just over a minute.

It reminded me of the saying “where there’s a will, there's a way”.  I wish the clever little fish all the best after winning the war against the giant predator.