Tough Pull
This Great Blue Heron used all its tricks and all its power to try to yank a meal out of the sand at the bottom of a boulder at low tide. The big bird stood there frozen, as they do, for many minutes, trying to become invisible, since many creatures can only perceive things that move. What exactly the bird was stalking I could not tell. Despite its great bodily strength and its beak of needlenose pliers, the bird could not dislodge its prey. Probably the bird was trying to grab a very dug-in clam. If so, it was wasting its stalking skills, since clams don’t have eyes. Nevertheless, even after failing to pull it out, the bird considered the prize worthy enough to chase away a nosy gull; that accomplished, it returned to the boulder and resumed its fixation. The photographer, however, had enough and moved on.
“… since clams don’t have eyes.”
Some clams can even see in color (with their eyes)….