Pelican drops in on a western grebe

Well, this was one big bird with a bit of attitude.

I was tracking it across the sky as it approached and, suddenly, it takes a sharp turn and begins plunging toward the water. Its target? A western grebe that was hanging out quietly in the middle of the pond.

The grebe saw the pelican coming and after sounding an alarm, dived out of the way at the last minute. Once the pelican settled on the water, it swam toward the grebe who clearly knew it was no match for the bigger bird and moved on to a different spot of the pond.

I don’t know if the pelican thought the grebe was a fish or perhaps just has a thing against waterfowl but it was clearly targeting the much smaller bird. Kind of a fun bit of action although my angle wasn’t exactly ideal. Be sure to check out the entire sequence of images.