Who'd be a fish..?

Life as a fish on Radipole Lake isn’t the bowl of cherries that many folk might have you believe. Fair enough, you have the freedom of the lake that your ability to respire underwater grants you and added to this freedom is the boon of plentiful invertebrate life to feed you and your entire extended family - can't be all bad..? However, the cruel downside of a piscatorial existence on Radipole is that almost every other inhabitant of the lake and its margins is hell-bent on capturing and consuming you as the following clips will amply demonstrate.

One minute you and your brethren are rootling around the rushy margins sifting up a bit of passing detritus when a heron makes its deadly, dagger strike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TW6lv21O_4&context=C30530fbADOEgsToPDskJj_vm90HKqYbRcKqDTpo7t

Or, in a blur of iridescent neon and gold, a kingfisher pins you in its bill, removes you from your watery familiarity, thwacks you on a stick and swallows you whole – all in the blinking of an eye thus availing scant opportunities for final fond farewells.*

The cormorant even has the audacity to swim you down and then eat you - surely the ultimate humiliation for a fish? Being out manoeuvred underwater by an animal that flies... the shame of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=413m9hvB1uw&context=C358966cADOEgsToPDskJqOdOvBygO2WEDz1SotsRQ

Even outsized fish cannot be too smug now that otters are resident and even predatory fish like pike don’t have things all their own way as the  following photograph shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEeJPeM0PPw&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Heron and pike by Allan Neilson.

The presence of such an abundance of fish eaters on the lake is an indication of the health of the reserves waterways. Electric fishing allied to casual observation of the newly created ditches and pools have shown that the fish population has expanded enormously to fill the enlarged capacity. All of which is good news for the fish themselves – who just need to phlegmatically accept that being eaten occasionally is an occupational hazard - as well as for the fish eating multitudes..

Thanks to Chris E-E for his great undertaking in gathering all of our footage - and there is a glut about to hit your screens so as always watch this space!

*Clip to follow when Chris completes the editing procedure... it will be very good!