Phalacrocorax carbo

On our walk today we saw not one, not two, but THREE perching cormorants. A picture of all three is in Extras. There's a lot of folklore about cormorants, some good, some bad. I like the Norwegian beliefs that three cormorants flying together are carrying messages and warnings from the dead, that they are good luck when they gather in a village, and that people who die at sea can visit their former homes in the form of a cormorant.

It turned out nice this afternoon but it was a bit gusty and the cormorants were having to work quite hard to stay on the branches. Don't they have brilliant feet?