I was witness to a bit of a struggle at Leighton Moss when a Great Crested Grebe had captured a Jack Pike. A ‘Jack’ Pike is a smaller Pike, not yet approaching full size but still a sizeable fish for a Grebe to take, indeed once fully grown the Pike would be very capable of turning the tables and taking a Grebe chick!
The tussle lasted for only two minutes or so as the Grebe tried to move the fish into a position where it could swallow it head first which eventually it did – it’s amazing how big a fish some of these water birds can tackle. As the Grebe was wrestling its prey a younger, juvenile GCG was pestering for a slice of the action (or fish) but they can only swallow whole so there was never going to be any sharing…