Nature Canada

Ambition and Overambition

Jim Dubois, a member of our Nature Canada online community, sent us this fantastic series of photos. Reminds us of the one that (almost) got away!
From Jim:
Was watching a seagull swimming along in shallow water today, when it stopped, and then started jumping into the air and plunging under water. It did this a half dozen times, the last time a bit higher than the previous attempts.



It worked, because it came up with what looked like a sculpin.

As it reached the beach though, through the viewfinder the fish didn’t look quite right, almost like it had two ends. After a few fruitless attempts to get it in its mouth, the bird left.

I went over to see what it had caught, and it was indeed a two-ended fish.

An eight inch sculpin, or bullhead, had tried to swallow a four inch sculpin and had got its horns stuck in its mouth. It couldn’t swallow it, or get rid of it, so they both ended up as something else’s dinner.
When I was fishing, a number of times I had a big cod grab a smaller fish on the way up, and though it wasn’t hooked, it wouldn’t let go. If you pulled it the last little bit carefully, you could gaff the large fish, then land the one that was on the hook. Hard world out there.
Thanks for sharing, Jim! If you liked these photos, don’t forget to check out Jim’s site at http://www.theineleganteagle.com/.

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