CATCHERS OF FISH

      We spent a couple of days along the Rappahannock River on the Northern Neck peninsula in northern Virginia during the end of July, 2026.  The Northern Neck has a beautiful, rural countryside of meadows, soybean and corn fields, and patches of deciduous woods.  But of most interest for me those two days was the Rappahannock and its wildlife.

     All the birds I saw along that river were large and obvious, and catchers of fish.  But they snare fishy prey in different ways and seek them in a variety of sizes, all of which reduces competition among those river and impoundment birds, allowing them to live together in harmony.  

     I saw one or two each of great blue herons, green herons and great egrets from that house along the Rappahannock.  All those birds perched handsomely on docks and pilings in the river, and stealthily waded on long legs along the shallow shores of the river to catch fish.  Each one reached out with its lengthy neck and beak to seize prey.  Green herons, being smaller, usually caught small fish.  But the great blues and great egrets generally seized larger fish in their beaks.  

     All herons and egrets get their food in the same way.  And all birds swallow their food whole because they have no teeth to reduce weight for flight.  

     A few each of ring-billed and laughing gulls flew strongly, but gracefully, up and down the river, and perched on pilings.  The laughers might have been post-breeding adults because their black head feathers were fading to grayish.  Gulls are devout scavengers, but they also catch small fish where they can.

     I saw four kinds of birds that dive for their finny prey, including two elegantly-soaring bald eagles, an apparently mated pair of stately ospreys, a couple of swift-flying Forster's terns and a few double-crested cormorants.  Bald eagles sweep down for large fish near the surface, but they only get their eight, deadly talons wet when they grab their prey with those sharp claws, then abruptly rise and fly to a perch to ingest their victims.  

     The pair of ospreys I saw every day from the house we rented may have nested on a stick nursery on a built platform erected in the river right in front of the house.  Every day they perched on that cradle between forays for larger fish.  And they spent each overnight on it.     

     Ospreys fish by soaring over large bodies of water to watch for larger fish near the surface.  When prey is spotted they dive with legs extended, hit the water with their bodies and seize their prey with their eight sharp talons, sinking into the water a little with the fish.  Then they flap strongly to emerge from the water and take flight to a perch to consume their catch.  Their fishing is something to see.

     The black-capped, red-beaked Forster's terns are not much bigger than blue jays.  These fast flyers circle larger waters to watch for small fish near the surfaces.  When a vulnerable, small fish is spotted, each tern dives quickly and plunges into the water head-first to snare the fish in its beak.  The tern disappears into the water with a splash, but soon emerges and takes flight, often with its victim in its bill.  

     I saw a few double-crested cormorants flying up-river, low to the surface, one day.  And one of them splashed down near the house to hunt for small fish.  Interestingly, cormorants dive from the surface of the water and often pop to the surface, seconds later, with a fish in their beaks.

     It was reported to us that river otters live along the shores of the Rappahannock River.  We didn't see any, but it was exciting to know they are in the area.  Otters also dive under water and catch larger fish.

     The beautiful Northern Neck, the broad Rappahannock and that river's wonderful wildlife made our stay along that river quite enjoyable.  Lovely rural areas, and their wildlife, are always inspiring and soul-lifting to many people, including me.       


 

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