TomKal foto

Photos of  those cormorants were taken on the "bird island" - in the National Park of Scotland, when I was shooting puffins (see Puffin’s description). It is amazing what a big difference in behavior of those birds we can observe when comparing "accidental" opportunities of shooting in Poland to the “bird island” in Scotland. Wandering around breeding ponds I managed to shoot cormorants, but if the distance was reduced to a few tens of meters, the birds immediately took their wings off. While on the island the same cormorants are at your fingertips and you have to be careful not to approach close enough to be pecked. The satisfaction of course varies a bit. However, watching those beautiful birds from a distance, in addition when they are caring for offspring is absorbing and exciting incredibly. Unfortunately, the midday light was bad for shooting of this species and all their beauty could not be conveyed. However, in those photos "dragon" arrangement of feathers can be seen, that makes it look more like skin than feathers. Cormorants are the bane of Poland ponds. They are great water hunters which decimate even medium-sized fish that swallows whole. As they live in large colonies, breeding still hungry 2-3 cubs, can cause considerable havoc even in large reservoirs. Besides that it is a quite big bird. Its wingspan is about a meter, and body weight can even reach two kilograms.
Last minute news 06/2015
It has been my second encounter with this species. Although this time the distance between me and them was quite long, and the uploaded photos were taken from a boat, which caused a great difficulty, I still managed to take a few pictures that enrich my modest initial photographic output. During my first encounter I dedicated most of my attention to Atlantic puffins, and this time to razorbills.