The catch

I noticed an elderly couple sitting on a bench beside a village pond staring intently at its centre, filled with water lilies and reeds, and a heron. I’d parked nearby anyway but as soon as I got out of the car I saw the heron for myself and watched it for some minutes as it stood in the relatively deep water that nearly reached up to its main body.

I could tell it was aware of both my presence and the couple sitting near the edge of the pond opposite to me. I took my camera from the boot of the car and slowly walked a few yards closer. The heron turned both its head and body several times as it surveyed the pond’s water. Occasionally it hunched down as if preparing to strike with its long neck, and then abruptly stood up to it fullest extent.

Its next move was to slowly walk about ten yards across the centre of the pond to a point where finally it launched its attack. I was hoping to catch that moment of action, but missed its strike, though I caught the exit of its head from the water, and the fish in its beak. You can just see the ripples from where it lunged. 

A few moments later the seated couple stood up and walked away, not having seen the catch as it was hidden from them by the reeds. But their movement startled the heron and it flew off with the fish and I watched it disappear before it eventually landed on a tree a few hundred yards away.