Same bird; two days later (than the incident described in the December 4 post). I was watching the great blue heron fishing in almost the same spot when he caught a decent size fish and high-stepped it back to shore.
He dropped it on the shore and stared at it as though daring it to make a move.
Notice how he dropped it in very shallow water as though he knew it could not swim away.
He teased it a little, but he didn't make any attempt to eat it.
When the fish began to flip around trying to get back into deeper water he instinctively stabbed it with his bill.
After it expired and was no longer moving, instead of eating it, the heron turned back to the river, waded out up to it's thighs and started fishing again. After a little while, it flew off across the river.
Once the heron left, I was curious as to what kind of fish the heron was too fussy to eat. To my surprise, it was about an eight inch rock fish (striper)! In the years I have watched herons, these are almost the only two times I have seen one reject a meal and they occurred within a couple of days of each other by what I am pretty sure was the same bird.
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