Snapped: Heron goes salmon fishing in River Severn at Shrewsbury
It's nice to know where your next meal is coming from. This heron was captured eyeing up the leaping salmon on the banks of the River Severn.
Graham Cowdroy was out for a walk near his home near the weir in Underdale Road, Shrewsbury, when he spotted the bird.
It was waiting for salmon to emerge, brought up to the level of the bank by the recent rainfall that has swollen the Severn.
"I'd been out for some time trying to get a shot of the salmon leaping on the weir when I spotted the heron on the Monkmoor side," he said.
"So I went round and crouched behind a bush with my tripod on the side of the river. It was good fortune really, although the heron has been there on most occasions when I've been out walking around this past week.
"Because the water has been so low for most of this year it's been a great time for catching the salmon. I've had five or six prints made from pictures I've taken this year."
Mr Cowdroy has been taking pictures around Shropshire and it's landscape for 66 years and is a keen member of Shropshire Photographic Society, who meet each Monday evening at the Gateway Education and Arts Centre in Shrewsbury.
The last few weeks have seen dozens of pictures of salmon trying to leap the weir in Shrewsbury being made, with low river levels and a healthy Severn salmon population thought to be the reason for the high number of salmon being captured in flight.
The salmon, which can be up to six years old, are taking part in their normal annual migration up river, but they must clear the weir in order to make it back to their spawning grounds in the lakes and streams further up the Severn such as at Lake Vyrnwy and Llyn Clywedog.
