A little blue heron tries to swallow a baby turtle it caught in Orlando’s Lake Eola Park. Photo: Ronen Tivony

I’m honored to share this Little Blue Heron CNN feature. On July 17, 2025, CNN selected my photograph for its This Week in Photos gallery, one of several publications recognizing my wildlife photography this year.

The photo shows a Little Blue Heron trying to swallow a baby Florida softshell turtle it had just caught at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando. I was photographing at the park that morning when the heron waded into the shallows near the fountain and came up with the turtle held crosswise in its bill.

About the Little Blue Heron’s Catch

Little Blue Herons typically hunt small fish, crustaceans, and amphibians in shallow water, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so a baby turtle is an unusual catch. Getting it down took several tries. It is also a bit of a role reversal: adult Florida softshell turtles grow large and aggressive enough that they have been known to eat small herons themselves, according to the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Lab. A hatchling has no such advantage, and young turtles are easy targets for wading birds until they grow much larger.

An Unlikely Spot for Wildlife Photography

Lake Eola Park is an unlikely place to find this kind of moment, a 43-acre lake in the middle of downtown Orlando best known for its fountain and swan boats. But its shallows also draw herons, egrets, and turtles year-round, and it’s a good reminder that dramatic wildlife encounters can turn up close to home, not just at the wetlands and refuges where I lead most of my Florida wildlife photography workshops, including the Orlando Wetlands bird photography workshop.

This Little Blue Heron CNN photo adds to a growing list of CNN, National Geographic, Guardian, and other features of my work. See more on the Published Work page, or get in touch to book a workshop.