"Sod Off, It's Mine!"

And he's definitely not sharing!

This gull, having stolen the fish from another, dashed off with it to make sure that he retained ownership. What fascinated me was that he then deliberately took this beautiful shiney silver fish and trampled it in mud before eating it. I assume that it was to help it go down.

He ate it in one mouthful too - no chewing or piecemeal stuff for this tough guy.

Fish detail better in large.

Kiwilizzie very kindly played taxi for me today and drove me to Nelson for an appointment as my foot is still too tender for driving that sort of distance. We had a lovely lunch at The Smugglers Bar and Cafe, then I went off to my appointment whilst KL went shopping.

On the way home we stopped down at the Waimea Estuary in the hopes of spotting kingfishers. None to be seen but there were spoonbills, stilts, herons, shags and gulls about - and apparently we'd just missed a white heron by minutes. Darn!