[EBB Sightings] Eared Grebe with Catch

It's the Bay Pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhynchus) which I believe is the only one we have. Seems to me that lately I have watched grebes and cormorants bring them up with greater frequency than in the past. They can get a foot long, and seem to be common on all the lagoons and waterways of SF Bay, including Lake Merritt. Apparently swallowing one is no easy matter as the fish is quite armored.

  Rusty Scalf


--- On Tue, 11/24/09, Verne Nelson  wrote:

> From: Verne Nelson 
> Subject: [EBB Sightings] Eared Grebe with Catch
> To: sightings at diabloaudubon.com
> Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 1:33 PM
> Does anyone know what it
> caught?? I see Grebes and Snowy's catch these regularly
> in the shallows presumably near bottom rocks.? Their
> defense is to curl into a loop, grabbing their own tail? It
> makes subduing them quite difficult, often taking many
> minutes to undo.
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/image/119702874
> 
> My guess is some kind of eel.
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