Hi,

I witnessed a rather unusual event friday at the Edmonds Fishing Pier.
At least, I think it was unusual.
A great deal of splashing revealed that a Glaucous-winged
Gull was harrassing a Horned Grebe,
probably for prey that the grebe had acquired. But
the amount of splashing was a great deal
more than I had seen. I saw the grebe dive, but
then looked away as a friend and I were gazing to
the west at other birds. As we left perhaps 10
minutes later, I noticed a Glaucous-winged in the water,
eating something large. It was eating the Horned Grebe!
Interestingly, no other gulls seemed to notice; there
was no attempt to take any of the food although
the "catch" was certainly large and obvious. The
gull just kept pulling at the carcass.

Has anyone else ever witnessed an event like this?
Did the gull just get "lucky" and strike
the grebe in a manner that stunned it
or broke its neck?

Susan McDougall
Susan.C.McDougall at boeing.com