Over on Alki we've watched many astonishing feats of engorgement over the
years. It's amazing what a bird can swallow. The most common feats are by
Double-crested Cormorants and Glaucous-winged Gulls. Out here, the hard
fish for them to swallow are the flounders and soles, and sometimes they
catch one they just can't eat. If a cormorant gives up, usually a gull is
there to carry it to the beach and try for itself, and even they have been
known to 'walk' away. Watch a gull eat a large sea star sometime. It can
take 30 minutes or more, but they usually get it done. And they don't bite
off pieces first, either.



And then there are the times we see California Sea Lions fight a Giant
Pacific Octopus. The Sea Lion always wins, but it takes a long time. In
that case, the sea lion bites off legs and swallows them the way a Heron
would swallow a snake. Except there's a lot more commotion.



--g



Gary T. Smith

Alki Point



_____

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Martin
Muller
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 2:58 PM
To: garybletsch at yahoo.com
Cc: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Profligate Pied-billed Grebe



Gary,



Thanks for sharing the cool grebe observation.

I have to agree I've never seen a pied-bill waste a fish (or other prey
item) it caught, either. In many, many hours of watching them.

However, I've seen both Great Blue Heron and Double-crested Cormorants catch
fish bigger than they could swallow and after long (painful-looking)
attempts, give up and "waste" the fish. Another way of looking at it is they
didn't kill themselves trying to swallow something too big.



Cheers,

Martin Muller, Seattle

martinmuller at msn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Gary Bletsch <mailto:garybletsch at yahoo.com>

To: tweeters tweeters <mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>

Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 6:40 PM

Subject: [Tweeters] Profligate Pied-billed Grebe




Dear Tweetes,

Today I dithered about among Skagit County's "Lake District," rather than
racing out to Mount Erie, which is what a sensible birder would have done.

There were no Redheads to be found on Clear, Beaver, or Mud Lake. There
weren't any at DeBay's Slough, either.

However, at Mud Lake, I watched a Pied-billed Grebe kill and then discard a
fish that I think was a crappie of some sort. It was shaped like a sunfish,
but had black spots on the fins and tail.

The grebe had a grey bill with black band around it; two other Pied-billed
Grebes with straw-colored bills followed it around, as the pied-billed one
tried to swallow this leviathan.

Again and again, the grebe would position the fish, then try to swallow it,
but the wide shape of the crappie's body prevented the bird from so doing.
After being subjected to perhaps ten of these punishments, the fish flopped
its tail back and forth in an ever more feeble manner.

Meanwhile, the other two grebes kept close, but never made any aggressive
moves. At one point, one of them did put its bill within an inch or two of
the fish, and made a tentative move toward it, but did not press the issue.
The grebe with the fish appeared to pay no heed to the other grebe.

After about five minutes of this, the grebe with the fish just dropped it in
the lilly-pad shallows. I could see the fish lying in the water, maybe an
inch or two below the surface, not moving at all. The other two birds stayed
there for a moment, and then swam off. Within a minute or two, all three
were looking for more suitable prey.

There were Buffleheads nearby, but they ignored the whole scene. No other
birds came over to investigate, so I left after another ten minutes.

I don't recall ever seeing a grebe kill something and then let it go to
waste. Come to think of it, I cannot seem to recall having witnessed any
instance of a bird or other predator doing this.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA
garybletsch at yahoo.com