{"id":140367,"date":"2023-08-02T05:30:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T11:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=140367"},"modified":"2023-08-02T07:18:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T13:18:52","slug":"western-grebes-having-difficulty-handling-slippery-fish-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/02\/western-grebes-having-difficulty-handling-slippery-fish-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebes Having Difficulty Handling Slippery Fish – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throw a thieving gull into the mix and things get complicated.<\/p>\n

Five days ago at Bear River MBR I photographed several Western Grebes, both adults and chicks, having a very hard time holding on to the slippery fish they’d caught or were about to be fed. I wanted to document two of those incidents in a blog post but there were too many photos involved for a single post so I divided them up into two parts. I published Part I<\/a><\/span><\/span> two days ago.<\/p>\n

This is Part 2.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This adult Western Grebe is the male (I believe) of a mated pair that had three half-grown and very demanding chicks that they were trying to keep fat and happy. All three chicks were in the water rather than being back-brooded while I was with them. They’re really getting too big for back-brooding but they can be hard to convince of that.<\/p>\n

Here he’s about to deliver a fairly large fish to one of the hungry youngsters. The tiny flying water droplets you may have noticed were a result of him shaking the fish. I think.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At first the fish exchange seemed to go swimmingly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But two frames later somebody dropped the ball.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this enlargement of the previous image it appears that the adult male released the fish before Junior had a firm grasp on it, so the fish is falling into the water.<\/p>\n

If I were the umpire of this game I’d charge Dad with an unforced error.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The fish immediately went under the surface so…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dad tried to retrieve it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He really<\/em> went after that fish but a few frames later he…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

came up empty. Junior doesn’t look happy about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A few seconds later, as a sheepish-looking Dad endured a “where’s my fish?” look from Junior, a Clark’s Grebe swam into the upper frame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Suddenly all hell broke loose. An opportunistic gull swooped down on the grebes and this was their reaction. The omnipresent thieving gulls don’t miss much and I suspect the gull either saw the grebes lose the fish or saw Dad trying to retrieve it and came in to try to snatch it out of the water.<\/p>\n

Note: In this photo it may look like Dad is chasing after the Clark’s Grebe instead of reacting to the gull, possibly because he thought it was getting too close to his chick. But I’m confident that wasn’t the case, for the following reasons:<\/em><\/p>\n