Cormorant

I thought this cormorant phalacrocorax carbodrying its wings at Lodmoor would be too far away to photograph but it came out better than I expected.

It's standing on one of the camouflaged roof tiles placed on artificial island. A sizeable colony of common terns nest on these two islands and the roof tiles are there for the fledgling terns to hide under when attacked by predators such as foxes and great black-backed bulls. They seem to work - the colony has grown from a few pairs ten years ago to about 80 pairs last year.

Today I saw my first swallow of the year, hawking insects over the sewage works. Everything seems early this spring despite the hard winter weather.