Crawdads are pretty good every once in a while, but these guys eat them all day, every day... 
This Yellow-crowned Night Heron ate so many of these in just a very short time that I lost count, and that is just while I was there, they can hold a lot! They are not a fast and furious eater like the Little Blue Heron, who eats a lot more, and more often than the YCNH, but I guess the YCNH makes up in size and weight that it eats instead. I really can't remember if I ever saw one of these eat a frog, or anything else, I am sure it would, but its main diet is just plain ol' every day crawdads, all day long. (There were many, many Bullfrogs there, 99% of them were just out of tadpole stage)
This shot was one of the many that I took while I stayed at the Village Creek Drying Beds (VCDB) marsh that had a lot of action when it had water, now that it's drying up some, that action is wavering, to a point of no action at all.
I spent several days recently just mainly shooting the herons and egrets that were at that time very abundant, now it has dried up considerably since we've not have any rain, but now, the Ibis have started using it..
This was the 'prettiest' crawdad that I saw, I did see some that were as red, but not with a large claw set as this guy did, I say did because he has already been de-pincered on one side, and the heron is already on the other. When I was a kid I hunted crawdads all of the time, we would find some huge ones too, but not once did I ever see a red one with a red-speckled claw. The really large ones were always blue, not red.
It was super hot most days, (106° a few days) while I was shooting all of the times that I have been there taking pictures of all of the wildlife, but I think it was really worth it. I would sit in the shade and shoot, other places I don't have that luxury, but this place is a world within a world to me, I actually forget that only 300 yards to the South is a busy street.
Randy
