![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pied-billed-grebe-0233b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"pied-billed-grebe-0233b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA good look at both predator and prey in warm light.<\/p>\n
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1\/1000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to get this Pied-billed Grebe in my viewfinder soon after it caught a fairly large crayfish. It was just before sunset so the light was unusually warm which put a golden glow on both the bird and the crustacean.<\/p>\n I had a lower shooting angle than I can usually get on this species and I was pleased that the grebe didn’t turn away from me as it dismembered the crayfish like they so often do. I think they tend to turn away from photographers while they have prey for two reasons – to allow a quick getaway at a vulnerable moment if necessary and to aggravate the photographer!<\/p>\n Whatever their motivation they almost reliably turn away from photographers when they have prey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I never know for sure what name to use for these crustaceans when they’re included in my photos because there are so many of them that are commonly used in different regions of North America and elsewhere. My tendency is to call them “crayfish” because that common name is the most clinical and scientifically accurate and I was trained as a biologist. But there are more than 500 species of crayfish in North America and in the South especially they’re a significant part of regional cuisine so a variety of terms for “crayfish” have developed.<\/p>\n The diversity of names for them is astonishing. They include crawfish, crawdads, mudbugs, ditchbugs, swampbugs, yabbys, water dogs and many others. In one ambitious study of American linguistics the Dictionary of American English (DARE) identified more than 40 regionally used common names for crayfish. Talk about confusing!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Crawfish Boil, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Giovanni Handal\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n The variety of regional recipes they’re used in is almost as diverse, including but not limited to crawfish boils, crawfish \u00e9touff\u00e9e, fried crawfish, crawfish bisque, crawfish dressing, crawfish pie and crawfish beignets. Here I’ve used “crawfish” in all the recipe names but imagine the variety when some or all of the other names for crayfish are used.<\/p>\n I suppose grebes don’t give a hoot what we call them. To birds crayfish are just a highly nourishing food item with an astonishingly large number of annoying appendages that have to be dealt with before and during the swallowing process,<\/p>\n For many birds crayfish as food must be well worth their inconvenience.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A good look at both predator and prey in warm light.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/crawfish-boil-creative-commons.jpg\")
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