![\"greater](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/greater-yellowlegs-3329-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI watched this bird feed for some time.\u00a0 Most of its food items were quite small, presumably a variety of invertebrates, but suddenly…<\/p>\n
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its bill emerged with a writhing, squirming mud-covered prey item.\u00a0 At first I guessed that it might be some type of worm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Almost immediately the bird released the prey and watched it intently just under the surface…<\/p>\n If you’ve noticed that the ripples in the water never extend far behind the bird in these images, it’s because there’s an extremely thin layer of ice just behind the yellowlegs.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n and\u00a0then retrieved it again.\u00a0 This process was repeated several times.\u00a0 I’m convinced it was a deliberate attempt at washing off the mud before consuming the prey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now I could see the prey more clearly and I’m quite sure it was a weather loach (alternately called dojo loach), an invasive fish.\u00a0 In other images I could see its\u00a0fins and\u00a0fish tail.<\/p>\n These East Asia natives (there are several species) are popular aquarium fish that are\u00a0occasionally\u00a0released into fresh water lakes and ponds where they sometimes thrive.\u00a0\u00a0 They have the ability to detect barometric pressure changes which they\u00a0react to\u00a0frantically by swimming erratically and standing on end\u00a0on the substrate – thus the name “weather loach”.\u00a0 Unlike most fish, these loaches burrow in the substrate at the bottom of ponds\u00a0and aquaria\u00a0which explains the initial muddy condition of this fish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once again the bird momentarily released the fish..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n and then quickly retrieved and swallowed it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the bird turned around I could see the loach moving and squirming as it went down the crop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As far as I know it was little ol’ me who first discovered the presence of weather loaches in the Farmington Bay ponds.\u00a0 In December of\u00a02007 I photographed this Common Goldeneye with a fish I didn’t recognize.\u00a0 I did some research on native fish in the area but couldn’t match any of them with this one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n