So much of nature photography has to do with luck, just being in the right place at the right time. This happened to me today.

I had to make a trip into Cheshire on other business and as I never like to miss any opportunity to go somewhere a bit different and take pictures, I threw my camera backpack into the car just in case. I finished my other business around lunchtime and it was a glorious day - barely a cloud in the sky and extremely hot. (I discovered later that this had been the hottest day in Britain ever recorded). So not ideal for photography as it was midday and very, very bright.

It was too nice not to be outdoors however and as I drove along I saw a sign for Dunham Massey, a place I have never visited before so I pulled into the National Trust car park, took my backpack and set off. I walked for a while but it really was too hot - the deer were sitting under the trees for some shade and even the waterfowl on the lake were just sitting quiety - I kicked myself. I should have known better. I bought an ice cream and then set off back towards the car park.

On the way back, I walked past the pond outside the main house and glanced across, as you do, noticing some coots and a couple of moorhens and a cormorant as I walked past. Wait a minute - a cormorant? What on earth is he doing in here? I quickly turned and saw him again briefly before he dived under the water - yes, it definitely was a cormorant but as quickly as I had raised the camera and pressed the shutter all I captured was the splash as he dived. I waited a few seconds to try and see where he came up and sure enough, he suddenly appeared again with the most enormous fish in his mouth!

I just started firing off shot after shot as he wrestled with this huge fish which was thrashing around all over the place causing a great deal of splashing. The cormorant held on tightly with his bill, determined not to let go and started to whack the fish against the surface of the water in an attempt to subdue it or knock it out. I couldn't believe the fight this fish put up and how the cormorant managed to hang on to it.

Eventually, he held the fish under the water long enough that it must have drowned as his bill was clamped over its gills, he then lifted it high, threw it up in the air and caught it in his bill, swallowing it whole. It was so large, you could see the shape of the fish in his throat as he attempted to swallow it. Finally he did and as he quietly swam away totally bloated, he glanced over towards me with a self-satisfied look as if to say 'aren't I clever?' and then quiety disappeared.

The whole thing happened so suddenly and was over so quickly that of course, I had had no time to change lens or even any settings so I was praying that the pictures would come out OK. As I was checking them on the back of the camera, a park warden strolled over and joked "you'll need a longer lens than that to see any fish in this pond". When I told him what I had just seen he was gob-smacked. They had drained the water down to around 3 foot deep only a matter of a few weeks previously and believed there to be no fish in it. There won't be either, if that cormorant stays around.

Most of the pictures did come out OK although several have hot spots caused by the bright sun causing reflections on the water and in the splashes but I have several which are usable and with which I am very pleased.

So it just goes to show - even when you think conditions are wrong and everything says it is a waste of time. sometimes just being in the right place at the right time is all it needs.