There was no planning or expensive camera – there was just a father and son ice fishing, an iPhone 5 and a fluke photo that's getting a whole lot of attention online.
On Monday, Jeremy Kinniburgh was ice fishing on Swan Lake in Vernon with his eight-year-old son Roscoe when an opportunist heron starting watching them carefully.
“Roscoe and I go fishing on Swan Lake quite often over the winter and we've found that the herons like to come and try to steal our fish,” said Kinniburgh.
“We had been there about 15 minutes when a heron starting watching. He flew to about 20 feet away and stood there.”
Roscoe caught a small perch and was admiring his catch as the heron crept closer.
“The heron took a step at a time, moving closer and moving closer. All of the sudden it grabbed it and Roscoe yelled “No!” as it flew up into the air.
“You can see the trail of footprints as it walked in from the side, it put its head down, got sneaky and then grabbed it. Roscoe yelled and it took off towards me with open wings, it was pretty cool.”
Kinniburgh managed to catch that one epic shot with just his iPhone 5.
“I managed to catch the random, perfect shot on a iPhone with a scratched screen. It was pretty crazy. I got lucky,” said Kinniburgh.
“It was perfect lighting and you can even see the fish in the bird's mouth.”
He said Roscoe was a little sad he lost his fish, but glad the bird got dinner and that his dad had a good photo of the scene.
“They are huge birds so it was cool for him to see it that close to him as well.”
The photo was send into the Vernon Morning Star and shared on the Facebook page. It quickly received hundreds of reactions, shares and comments.
It was also posted on the other Black Press Okanagan paper's social media accounts, receiving hundreds more reactions, likes, shares and comments.
“It has been nuts, the shares alone have been hilarious, it's amazing,” said Kinniburgh.
“It's fun when something like that happens, to see people from all over Canada sharing and enjoying the photo. It is pretty neat.”
As for Roscoe, Kinniburgh said he is eagerly waiting to see his photo in the Vernon Morning Star Friday morning.
“He keeps checking, it's hilarious, he is even checking flyers to see if he is in the flyers.”
Check out the video below for a time lapse of the heron's steal.
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