Circling Before Take-Off

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.

The Common Cormorant by Christopher Isherwood


Whenever I see a cormorant, I invariably think of the first two lines of this nonsense poem. Growing up in a bird watching family who enjoy quirky and pun-driven humour, this was recited often when we were out with our binoculars, but for some reason, I could no longer remember more than those first two lines. Perhaps only the first two lines were ever quoted.

In search of a blip today, Leejohnaire and I ended up at our neighbourhood pond again and spotted a cormorant there for the first time. The sun was just setting, giving a lovely golden light to everything around, highlighting the delicate patterns on the water and beautiful shadows and silhouettes, and as I crept slowly closer to the cormorant, it suddenly leapt off its perch with a loud splash and, flapping hard, started slapping its way through the water like a Two-Ton Tessie (… that could actually walk on water… I was struggling for an analogy as you can tell).

Boy, is that a bird clumsily designed for taking off. Most things circle before landing. Not cormorants!

Love the golden splashes in LARGE.

L blipped a wider shot of the beautiful, peaceful scene just before the bird ruined it!