That's actually quite a curious pic . If the fish has escaped from another bird then its head would be pointing downwards surely , and it doesn't look like it's just taken off from the water either , wierd
Heavy end down - yes, if it is falling. But this one is meant to look like it is going up so lobbed upwards and still going up, or at its apogee. My best guess anyway.
aha , a bit of detective time then , well I've looked quite closely and can't see any signs of distortion to indicate a photoshop job , can't see any lines from its mouth , no shadows to show someone dropping it , no signs that it's just left the water , but its head is still pointing up , could be a hard one
If another bird higher up had dropped its catch, it is quite possible that it would descend tail first, as I think that birds generally will tend to swallow fish head first (?) - so if the bird above had to regurgitate its catch it would have come out tail first perhaps?
I reckon that the bird (a frigate bird?) in the photo missed it though... doesnt look like Mr. Bird is properly in line to snatch it.
This does remind me of an occasion in St Vast when we were sat in the cockpit having pre dinner drinks.
Right next to our boat a cormorant surfaced with an eel, bigger than himself! The question was, who was going to eat whom. The battle began and went on for several minutes, then the cormorant threw the eel into the air above its head, the cormorant then opened its mouth and the eel feel straight in! The battle continued inside the cormorant as he swam off, unable to fly!
This reminds me of the scene from finding nemo where Nemo is being eaten but wont go down the throat of the bird who then starts choking on him /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Those of you with young children will undoubtedly have been subjected to this scene many times /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif