JUST LET ME BE!
Honestly, the resident pied cormorant at Blackheath duck pond is the crabbiest looking creature imaginable.
I have no idea if this cormorant is male or female. I presume it finds a partner and breeds each year, but as far as I can see it’s always alone.
Sometimes it sits on a little island in the middle of the pond, in company with the mallards and the native wood ducks. I don’t think it likes their company, inoffensive as they are.
It’s doubtful whether there are fish in the duck pond, but plenty of yabbies, wormy things and tadpoles. Plenty to keep a cormorant well fed anyway. The ducks are probably too full of bread from adoring little kids to compete for food.
I have to say it’s rare for me to see our cormorant swimming;
The photo below was taken after a morning diving session. The wing feathers of pied cormorants are not waterproof, so the bird has to hang them out to dry. That wingspan is pretty impressive don’t you think?
After its close encounter with the mallard the bird found a more secluded spot. It was on a submerged tree branch, right in the middle of the pond.
Here is proof that pied cormorants do produce young in their nests of sticks. This parent doesn’t look particularly proud of it’s offspring. How typical!
Ah well, I suppose we can’t all be outgoing, chirpy types.