Trout

Apologies for the indistinctness of this photo…it was taken at quite a distance. The subject is remarkable. Honest!

It is a little shag swallowing a large trout it had just caught in Bortons Pond. I have never witnessed this before and was astonished to see how long it took to position the trout perfectly so that it would go down its throat.

The extra is just after it had managed to swallow it whole.

Thereafter the shag hung about in the middle of the pond as it tried to get the fish down even further. For several minutes it seemed to be stuck mid-gullet and the shag was unable to bend its neck.

It made me wonder how long it takes a trout to die inside a shag’s body, and then how long it takes to be digested.

Further apologies to those of you eating at this moment.