Sunday 6 April 2014

Cormorants.

After a very stormy and extremely wet winter I have finally come out of hibernation! 

Whilst I did get in some local birding during the early part of the year it was not without its difficulties. Excessively high water levels on local rivers spilling over onto farmland, pastures and many roads making travel very difficult and creating havoc for many homeowners.

At Riverside Country Park the nearby meadows looked like an extensive lake and the relatively new boardwalk across the marsh just about managed to stay above the water level. With so much water around it was perhaps not surprising that the wildfowl was scattered over a much larger area than usual so on one outing my attention turned to a species that was fairly easy to locate ...... Cormorants.

Firstly a hurried shot of one in flight and then two different individuals perched high above the river.

Whilst I appreciate this species is not everyone's favourite and perhaps not the most photogenic they did strike a decent pose in an otherwise bird-less landscape. Above is an adult in non breeding plumage.

The above individual with extensive white feathers around its crown and hindneck is much older and is wearing the distinctive white thigh patch indicating that it is in breeding plumage.

And finally a closer fly-by as one individual decided to move off to look for a midday snack .... somewhere! ... FAB.

15 comments:

  1. Good to see you're back in stride again, Frank. West Sussex was dreadful during the floods and often had to make several attempts to find a passable road out of my area.

    I really like Cormorants..such haughty looking birds.

    Hope you can get out more often now...

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's good to see that you're back in the saddle again. I hope the land's water levels get back to normal soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frank finally. I was beginning to think you checked out on us. But I knew better. As Steve said, good to see you're back in the saddle again. I love the cormorant images. I think these birds have one of most unusal shapes to them. Welcome back. Hope you stay a while.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Welcome back from your slumbers Frank...[;o)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes ;) you are back, great! Very nice selection of image shares right off too, hope you stick around a bit~

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great to see you back in action Frank.
    John.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Welcome back. Lovely photos, I enjoy watching Cormorants. I often seen an adult and youngster perched in the trees by a local reservoir.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Can't blame you for hibernating....what a wet winter, hopefully the last for a while.

    Cormorants are fab.....love the images.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Glad to see you're back! I've been wondering where you were. Nice Cormorant shots!

    ReplyDelete
  10. That was a long hibernation Frank. Hope you slept well.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Frank; good to see you posting again, and I love the multi-directions on the board-walk. Interesting note you added on the white-thigh on the cormorant, thanks

    ReplyDelete
  12. hi frank! nice to see you again!

    i like that fancy boardwalk, and the cool cormorants, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Glad to see you out of hibernation, Frank…guess the same could be said for myself…nice cormorant shots! That boardwalk looks inviting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Frank, it is nice to see you back again! I like the cormorants!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi frank. I wondered where you had gone but nice to see you back. I was looking back at your Christmas post and the armed Stag shot is Marvellous and you did say you had more shots so I hope you will show them to us. The flooding that people had was dreadful. Photos of the Cormorants are great. I hope you have got further on with doing some more research on your family.

    ReplyDelete

I hope you enjoyed your visit and I always appreciate your comments and feedback.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails