Flirting with danger

From a distance I saw a juvenile Great Blue Heron trying to swallow an Eel like fish in a Storm Water pond. It tired to swallow it at least for three minutes. I couldn't tell what it was, so I took a few photos. Later when I looked at them on computer screen I was horrified to see the heron was trying to swallow what appears to be a fishing lure with fishing hook attached to it. The first photo on the left is what attracted me to the action first. The middle photo shows it trying to swallow the lure. The last photo to the right is taken two minutes after the first. In the inset I have enlarged part of its beak area to show the fishing hook. The bird appeared to recognize the metal hook and tried to re-align the lure several times. I got distracted by a group of Egrets flying in. A minute later when I looked up I saw the heron standing upright - I hope that at the end it discarded the lure and did not swallow it with hook attached. We humans often leaving our footprint, detrimental to nature, everywhere.

 

Done