If it first you don’t succeed, try again. And then if you don’t succeed after that, give it one more really big, all-in try.
Inspiring, I know. But I can’t take the credit for that guiding light of a quote. All of the honor goes to the great blue heron in this video for showing some insane commitment and sticktoitiveness. This was a classic case of “eyes being bigger than the stomach,” but the heron never admitted that.
Great blue herons are the largest herons in North America, though that fun fact doesn’t help it all that much in this video. Let’s just say the largest heron in North America must have picked out the largest fish in Western Hemisphere, because the scaly creature gave the big bird some trouble.
Obviously the heron was proud of its catch… maybe a little too proud. It probably could have had a much easier time practicing catch and release with that one and going for a smaller fish, but it evidently wanted to swallow the fish before it would consider swallowing its pride.
So the great blue heron went into a great battle with the fish it had plucked from the water, and it was a fight for the ages. You only see struggles like this when a competitor is being pushed to their limits, or when you go to the Golden Corral and watch a mildly sweaty man go for his fourth helping from the buffet.
The heron was pulling out all of the stops to try and get this big fish down its gullet, but with its potential meal being larger than its beak (and basically as large as its own head), that was a tall task. It even dipped the fish into the water to try and help the fish down into its stomach.
It wasn’t having much luck.. right up until it finally had a breakthrough. Positioning the fish slightly sideways somehow did the trick, and before you could ring the dinner bell, the great blue heron had finally won the great fish fight. I don’t know how else to explain it other than this clip really gives some “Joey Chestnut eating hot dogs” vibes.
See if you agree:
