Nancy and I and were out today birding on the West Seattle beaches when
we saw something that neither of us had ever witnessed before.
A Thayer's gull had caught a good sized crab, and was settling down to
lunch, when the crab turned on him, and attached itself firmly to the
bird's breast.
With the added weight of the crab, the gull could not get airborne. Nor
could it get its beak close enough to its breast to pry the crab loose
(although that appeared to be the gull's plan of action.
The weight of the crab made the gull front heavy, so that about half the
time it was up to its nares in the water.
It appeared to us that unless the gull swam to land soon, it would be
the crab that would have the gull for lunch rather than visa versa.
After about 15 minutes of impasse, the crab released its hold and
vanished back into the bay.
The gull preened for a few minutes (it certainly looked to me as though
he was telling all the other gulls in the area that he had planned the
whole episode that way).
Nature tooth and claw at its best.