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Ol' Blue Eyes
This cormorant served as a greeter along the causeway at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina, standing halfway down the causeway sidewalk and allowing respectful visitors a close approach. A cormorant greeted us in similar fashion when we visited the Everglades in Florida over a decade earlier. With a closeup profile of the face, you can see the cormorant's beautiful blue eyes.
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Contortionist
A preening cormorant contorts its head so that it can get at its neck feathers, grabbing the feathers in its bill and then dragging the bill across the feathers to remove any debris or parasites lurking under the surface. It had to maneuver its head in a variety of positions to cover its entire body.
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Hide and Seek
Where's the cormorant?Where's the cormorant? Where's the cormorant? There he is! |
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A torso-shot of the cormorant, showing its wet wing and back feathers. While many water birds have oil in their feathers to keep the water out, cormorants do not and get soaked every time they dive for fish, having to rely on the sun to dry out their feathers. This one was already starting to dry and didn't resort to the wings spread pose they often strike to speed up the drying process. |
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Cold Confusion
A sudden cold snap froze most of the water at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, leaving this cormorant seemingly a bit confused. I’ve seen cormorants swimming and flying on many occasions but have never see one walk. At first I thought it’s unusual behavior might be an indication that it was sick, but after it walked onto the ice for a while I had a second thought — it was probably struggling to figure out just what this cold surface was doing on top of its nice channel of water, and trying to devise a way to get underneath and go fishing.
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