Plucky weasel takes on heron but ends up paying ultimate price

This was the moment when a weasel discovered it had bitten off more than it could chew - and ended up as a bird's dinner.

Just days after photos of another weasel hitching a ride on a woodpecker were seen all over the world, images have emerged of this plucky mammal scrapping with a heron.

However, after biting the bird's beak the weasel quickly discovered it was on a hiding to nothing as the bird coolly fought back before picking it up in its beak and flying to a nearby lake where after a couple of dips, the weasel's fight was done and it had become the heron's lunch.

The wildlife battle was caught on camera by bird-watcher Jonathan Forgham, as he was leaving the Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

The 56-year-old from Hertfordshire had spent three hours photographing owls at the reserve when he spotted the weasel attacking the heron.

"I got my car closer and could see the weasel attacking the bird." Mr Forgham said. " At that point the heron wasn't trying to eat it, it was just trying to get rid of it.

"But the weasel attacked its beak again and the heron picked it up and flew of to the pond.

"I drove the car round there in time to see the heron try to drown the weasel. It lifted it out of the water and then dunked it again to make sure it was dead. When the weasel was quite motionless the heron swallowed it.

"Afterwards it didn't do much, it just stood there looking quite smug."

Last week, photographer, Martin Le-May from Essex caught remarkable photos of this weasel riding a woodpecker. On that occasion both animals survived their unusual encounter.