It's nice to be high up on the food chain.

One of the common sights there at Griffin's is this Great Blue Heron. He/she/it is always there in the morning, walking along the beach, looking for a good breakfast. Normally that means some little sun fish, but these big birds are known to be fairly omiverous. The water there close to shore is filled with little sunnies, some covering the nests that dot the bottom of the lake near the shore. But one morning on this last trip, as I stood watching, I was surprised to see the bird walking up onto shore from the water. Thinking I might be able to get a good picture I went back to the cabin and got the camera. By the time I got back moments later, the big bird had caught himself a Chipmunk.



Chipmunks are also a common sight there at Griffin's. They skitter along through the gardens and brush, constantly on the move. Cute little squirrel/rat-like things, I always expect to see one in the jaws of Remmington, the camp kitty. As we were driving up the dirt road to the cabins this year I did see another big cat crossing the road with one of these little critters in it's mouth. We also ran over a snake that was crawling across the road or sunning itself. It was about four or five feet long, stretched out in a line across the road. Bad move. I doubt it survived the experience.



By the time I got back to the scene, the Heron had the little dude in his beak and was running/flying back to the water, where it quickly began to dip it's breakfast into the water.



I'm not sure if the Chipmunk was still alive or not, but I knew it wasn't long for this world.



I thought I could see the little legs flailing around a bit as the Heron repeatedly dipped it into the water.



I was thinking, he/she/it is ether tryin' to drown that little dude... or he's lubin' it up for the swallow.



Sure enough, one last dip and then...



Down the hatch! Thing is, some critters seem to only exist so that other critters can have a handy breakfast now and then. That's life. End of story.

So, here's to not being that critter! Cheers!