Great Cormorants
June 23rd, 2015
Double-Crested Cormorants are common in Ottawa and ten times more common throughout Cape Breton. Over-exposure has left me blase, although I still remember my wonderment the first time I saw one, nine years ago in Hog's Back Park: an all-black bird with feet like a duck, bill like a heron, wings like a vulture, ghostly blue eyes and two weird little tufts on its head. (Little did I know how rare it was to actually see those "double crests." In the years I've been birding since I've never seen it again.)
But the Great Cormorants I saw on this vacation gave me a fresh appreciation for cormorants--for the intensity and prehistoric weirdness of them. This is a much less common variety, at least in North America, that is only found on the north Atlantic coast from Maine to Newfoundland. Before this I'd only seen one once before at a great distance (in Gaspé.) They're larger than Double-Cresteds, and in breeding plumage really quite handsome. I was struck by the steel blue sheen they showed in good light, and the scalloped, mosaic-like pattern of their back feathers.
1680x1050 wallpaper (this one's best appreciated at high res!)
Cormorants stand like that for extended periods to dry their wings after diving for fish. Unlike most water birds, they don't have waterproof plumage.
June 23rd, 2015
Double-Crested Cormorants are common in Ottawa and ten times more common throughout Cape Breton. Over-exposure has left me blase, although I still remember my wonderment the first time I saw one, nine years ago in Hog's Back Park: an all-black bird with feet like a duck, bill like a heron, wings like a vulture, ghostly blue eyes and two weird little tufts on its head. (Little did I know how rare it was to actually see those "double crests." In the years I've been birding since I've never seen it again.)
But the Great Cormorants I saw on this vacation gave me a fresh appreciation for cormorants--for the intensity and prehistoric weirdness of them. This is a much less common variety, at least in North America, that is only found on the north Atlantic coast from Maine to Newfoundland. Before this I'd only seen one once before at a great distance (in Gaspé.) They're larger than Double-Cresteds, and in breeding plumage really quite handsome. I was struck by the steel blue sheen they showed in good light, and the scalloped, mosaic-like pattern of their back feathers.
1680x1050 wallpaper (this one's best appreciated at high res!)
Cormorants stand like that for extended periods to dry their wings after diving for fish. Unlike most water birds, they don't have waterproof plumage.
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Mike
June 24th, 2015 at 11:04 am
A dark and hungry bird arises!