A Black-necked Stork was seen by 15 birdwatchers, with varying degrees of
experience, devouring a snake. I don't have my Handbook with me at present
so cannot check if this a normal part of their diet. (When will they put it
on disk????)
This was at Llwellyn Wetlands, near Casino, NSW on Wednesday 24th May '06.
The Stork was seen to pick up the snake a few meters from the edge of the
water, carry it to the water's edge where it struggled to devour it. It held
the snake crossways in it's bill and submerded it in the shallow water many
times, perhaps trying to drown it. The snake was black, approximately 600mm
to 800mm long, very slender and 'whippy', it struggled hard twisting,
turning and almost escaping a few times.
Eventually the Stork was able to turn the snake so that it had it head first
in it's bill and then proceeded to swallow it. We could see the snake
wriggling in the long neck as it went down. YUK!! The tip of the tail was
visible for some time protruding from the Storks bill.
It was definitely a snake and not an eel, those being totally different
shapes.
The other interesting thing about this sighting was that the Black-necked
Stork had one eye black and the other eye yellow.
Val Curtis
Any comments welcome.
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