Cormorant

 We are some distance from the sea here - at least 30 miles as the crow flies. Despite this we often see cormorants which are normally thought of as coastal birds. This is because cormorants have followed the River Eden some 80 miles from the Solway Firth and made the river their home. Cormorants are very similar to  the smaller shag  but shags stay along the coast and don't come up the river.

You will see that the bird sits very low in the water and has a beak adapted for fishing. Cormorants dive to fish and swim with powerful legs and assist motion with their short wings. The bird in my photograph is a breeding bird as can be told from the white cheek patches which are absent in non breeding birds. The birds spend a lot of their time preening and keeping their feathers in good condition and can often be seen on a perch with their wings outstretched so that the feathers can dry off after a dive.

The birds are unpopular with local anglers who claim (with some justification) that the birds take all the fish! As the river nears the sea there are large numbers but we usually only see small groups here and they keep strictly to the main river.

Diary Notes

I repositioned camera traps last night to the garden near the house. Another fleeting glimpse of a stoat and several shots of wood mice. The weather has stayed cold and wet and there is still snow on the hills.

I keep checking the usual ponds and puddles for frogspawn as I know there is a lot in the rest of the country but so far there is no sign of any. It makes a big differences being 200m above sea level.

The daffodils in the garden are only just beginning to bloom. As a gesture towards Spring I offer this photo of the buds on a Goat Willow (some people call them Sallow) in our bog meadow.

Large flocks (200-300) common gull on the waterlogged fields today.

25 pink footed geese in a field about 1km down the road

A couple of roe deer in amongst the sheep and lambs in the field opposite.