Thursday, May 3, 2012

Crab Fishing

I drove over by the Max Brewer causeway for a few minutes this morning to see if any birds were around. I was of course wishing I had enough time to visit the very near by MINWR, but I didn't today. I found this one lonely White Ibis doing some crab fishing in the shallow river water.


I've observed White Ibises consuming a variety of things, but never a crab.


The Ibis had an interesting technique for consuming the crab.


It spend quite a bit of time crushing and disassembling the crab.


As the Ibis removed the legs of the crab, it would drop them into the water.


The Ibis then dropped the body of the crab into the water and retrieved all the legs.




39 comments:

  1. Wowee, that was astonishing, to eat frogs legs. You caught it just about time, my favourite is number 6, truly superb.

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    1. Thanks Bob! The Ibis did seem to enjoy the crab legs:)

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  2. great shots! hoping he got to eat some of the body, but if he didn't i'm sure the turtles and fish would.

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    1. Thanks Tex! He may have pulled the body back out at so point, or he may have been full after eating all those legs:)

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  3. Lovely shots, that is some crab there. I certainly would not be picking that up!

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    1. Thanks Marc! That was quite a large crab.

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  4. una serie estupenda. Felicidades Tammy me encantas tus fotos y esta fauna desconocida para mi. Un saludo desde Extremadura.

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    1. Muchas gracias. Esta ave es muy común aquí.

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  5. Buenas tomas, Tammy, la pillaste en plena faena, buen momento el capturado.

    Saludos.

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  6. Excellent shots there Tammy. That crab was done for. I didnt think the Ibis would have gone for something that big.
    Have a good day

    Shaun

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Shaun, and for your comments! The Ibis didn't seem to have any trouble with the large crab.

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  7. Hi Tammy,
    Greate picture series of the crab eating Ibis. It looks like you are quite close with your camera or maybe you have very long lens....
    God sharp pictures with a great little crab story, As always!
    Greetings /Kenny

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    1. Hi Kennny, thanks so much for your comments. I was sitting on the shore watching this bird; it didn't seem to pay much attention to me. It didn't even offer me a crab leg:)

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  8. Awesome photos and description of really cool behavior!

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  9. Ummm!!! beautiful bird and unknwon to me.. Great time with breakfast.. Cheers..

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    1. Thanks for your comments Ana! This is a very common bird in this area, but it always fun to watch.

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  10. Wow Tammy! These are fabulous action captures! I've seen Ibis eat crabs before but never that large. Great photographs illustrating the technique they use when eating a jumbo crustacean. Very cool! Superb collection!

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    1. Thank you so much Julie! You are always so kind. I was surprised to see the Ibis catch such a large crab, but it seemed to have no trouble at all with it!

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  11. I guess that's one way to work up an apetite!! I enjoyed the series of photos illustrating the hard work involved in getting a meal!!

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    1. Thank you very much for your comments. The Ibis did have a bit of work to do, but it definitely seemed to enjoy its meal!

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  12. Quality feeding shots Tammy.

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  13. Fascinating! Love seeing the whole story.

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  14. Wow, awesome shots!
    Thanks for sharing.

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  15. Great captures - by you and the ibis (but perhaps not so great for the crab!).

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    1. Definitely wasn't a great day for the crab:) Thanks for your comments Jeremy!

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  16. Hola Tammy fabulosas imagenes de este Ibys.Tammy he tenido un problema con la conexion de internet y no podia comentar tus fotografias,creo que ya esta resuelto el problema.Un fuerte abrazo.

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  17. Truly amazing!
    What an interesting observation and glorious pics in this sunshine: it enhances perfectly the scene!
    Well done again Tammy!

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  18. More great pictures! I would have been even more impressed if the ibis had squeezed a little lemon on the crab legs! LOL

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  19. ¡Vaya momentazo más bien captado! Enhorabuena.
    Saludos!!

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  20. Fantastic shots Tammy! Like the last one where he is just finishing off his meal!
    J
    Follow me at HEDGELAND TALES

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  21. Hi Tammy,
    beautiful shots ... my favorite is where he is the cancer of the mouth lies down properly ..
    regards Frank

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I greatly appreciate your comments!