how to eat fish with absolutely no waste...........

i can't personally vouch for this method (being that i am a vegetarian) but from i can tell from this guy here - it works!

on our recent trip to the mountains - we stumbled upon this water snack in the lake.  we followed it to this dead sunfish and for the next 20 minutes or so - we were mesmorized by what we saw.

the snake spent the first minute or so trying to decide the best way to eat this fish.

once he figured out that the best way to tackle it was head on - he got right to work

this snake literally stayed in one area just a foot or so away from us

he knew how to put on a show

every once in awhile he'd stop and pose for us - proud of his progress i am sure

sometimes he'd swim back just a tiny bit - maybe he was using the force of his body against the water to help push the fish further into his mouth - or maybe he needed some more water just as we would take a drink between bites.........

he was nice enough to give us a shot of just how wide he could open his mouth

another bow

and finally he was finished.  see how fat he is right behind his head?  i honestly thought i'd see a fish shape come out the back and make its way down this body.  i'm sure he would have stayed longer to let us watch it travel down this body - but by this time we had drawn a crowd (lucky for us they came at the very end) because crazy grandma lady came over and scared it away.

i'm so happy that the guy we were with came through and emailed me this pics! aren't they awesome! i'm not sure i'd be as thrilled had the fish been alive and i would have seen it being killed.....but i am glad this fish was not alive and we got to watch...esp the boys. they talked about it for days!