Pick One

Continuing BACKWARDS, here is the Green Heron seconds before it dove into the school of fish. It stayed in this position for what seemed like the longest time, presumably watching the school of fish. Look at the feet on this bird! They seem disproportionately large compared to the body and compared to any other heron species.

As it waited, it slowly stretched out it's body in readiness to spring at just the right moment.

I can relate to a predator that is attempting to catch one from a group. What I mean is, fish, birds, wildebeests and the like will assemble in tight knit groups which does a couple of things. It lowers the chance of any one animal being "the one" that ends up being a meal. If you are in a herd of a thousand animals, your chances are at least a thousand to one of being eaten. 

But, there is another reason which I didn't personally discover until I started trying to shoot flocks in flight, such as a flock of geese or egrets. As they are flying, it becomes really difficult to select a single target to focus on. And, if you don't focus properly, you end up with a bunch of blurry pictures where none of the birds are in focus. Believe me, it can be so frenetic and confusing that you don't come away with a single image.  So, what I have to do personally is to keep telling myself that I am going to pick one bird to focus on.

And, I think perhaps that is what the Green Heron is doing.  It is not simply watching the entire school of fish, but I think it is targeting one fish because, if it simply dives into the school without having picked out one specific fish, it would almost certainly come up empty.