Cormorant Rock
What's the difference between a cormorant and a shag? - Yes, sounds like a bad music-hall joke, I know. But it's one of those things that is easy to learn and I like things like that.
Both cormorants and shags are large black seabirds with long thin bodies. But a cormorant is bigger. And a shag has a curl of feathers on its head. Sorted.
Here's a Pembrokeshire rock that I like, set in a silver sea:
On top of it there are always cormorants as it's a good fishing place for them.
Cormorants have always seemed to me to embody the wildness and remoteness of the sea - not quite so much as the wandering albatross, perhaps, but heading that way.
Then, a couple of years ago, I saw one sitting on a post in Waterloo Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds, about fifty miles inland. Perhaps it was on holiday.
Both cormorants and shags are large black seabirds with long thin bodies. But a cormorant is bigger. And a shag has a curl of feathers on its head. Sorted.
Here's a Pembrokeshire rock that I like, set in a silver sea:
On top of it there are always cormorants as it's a good fishing place for them.Cormorants have always seemed to me to embody the wildness and remoteness of the sea - not quite so much as the wandering albatross, perhaps, but heading that way.
Then, a couple of years ago, I saw one sitting on a post in Waterloo Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds, about fifty miles inland. Perhaps it was on holiday.
posted by Daphne at 9:20 pm
1 Comments:
The common cormorant [or shag]
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
You follow the idea, no doubt?
It's to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have never thought of, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
Christopher Isherwood
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