A FIERCE battle between a bird and eel has been captured in several fascinating photographs.

Hobbyist photographer and Echo Camera Club member Don Williams captured a 30-minute war in the waters of Poole Quay on Thursday, March 16, as a cormorant tried to eat an eel.

He was working as a skipper when he noticed the cormorant rise to the surface of the water with the large eel in its mouth, attempting to swallow it.

Quickly rushing to grab his camera, Don captured numerous images of the encounter – in which he says the eel came back up the throat of the bird four or five times.

Cormorant tries to eat an eel in Poole Quay. (Image: Don Williams)

“It was one long battle,” Don said. “I kept saying to people ‘are you watching this?’ It was absolutely awesome to see.

“The eel just kept fighting and you could see the cormorant was getting to a point where it thought of letting go, but it kept picking it back up again.”

Several seagulls were also flying overhead and unsuccessfully attempted to nab the eel from the mouth of the cormorant.

Seagull tries to take eel being eaten by a cormorant. (Image: Don Williams)

After more than 30 minutes, the cormorant was able to eat the eel and drifted off further down the Quay before surprising Don by flying back to the same area.

Don added: “It’s absolutely amazing he was able to fly after swallowing an eel as big as that. It was an amazing experience to watch a battle like that and I’m glad I was able to capture it.”