The Great crested grebe chick would not shut up, squeaking incessantly for food even while it was preening.

So, abandoning its attempt at a snooze, the parent grebe slid off its pile of weed to head off in search of fish.

What the parent brought back to feed its ever-hungry youngster was an eel, a squirming struggling eel that was putting up a strong fight for its life.

The grebe parent tried to at least stun the eel, bashing it repeatedly against the surface of the water.

However, the eel was definitely still alive and wriggling when the parent passed it to its chick.

The chick struggled to find a way to swallow the still moving eel but appeared, after a few minutes, to gulp it down.

To the youngster’s surprise, and mine, the eel was not done with its fight for life, somehow managing to slither back up the grebe’s throat and back out of its beak.

It took perhaps five more minutes before the youngster managed to grab it, poke it, manoeuvre it into position and once again swallow down the eel. This time it stayed down.