Cormorant on Cedar Pond

August 22,2003

As I set out to walk I noticed that there was a different looking bird sitting on one of the rocks that stick out of the pond. There have been times when I have seen heron or sea gulls there, but this bird was quite different.

I decided to run upstairs and get my camera so that I could photograph the bird using the telephoto lens. When I returned he was still sitting there, but when I had the camera on and aimed at him, he just slid himself under the water and disappeared for what seemed a very long time! I ended up running to all sides of the pond, hoping to catch him somehow so that I could , well, have a good shot of whatever it was! Then, he suddenly took to wing and flew across the road to the other side of the pond where I got some fairly decent shots of him. I still wish I could have gotten the shot of him sitting on the rock where his whole body structure was visible!

I once thought that he had totally disappeared when he suddenly surfaced. In reading about their fishing habits, they do all their hunting underwater and swim without using their wings. No where could I find a fact about how long they stayed under, but I would guess in the area of 2 or 3 minutes at a time!