Cormorant Tree

Until recently, the nearest to here that I had ever seen a cormorant was the Floating Harbour in Bristol, thirty-five miles away. Recently I have seen a few flying overhead and wondered where they landed. This afternoon I had stopped at Kellaways to investigate a pair of swans that were in a field near the river, pecking at the grass, and noticed these cormorants in this tree on the other side of the road.

I walked along the River Avon's banks as far as Peckingell and saw two or more herons, but neither let me get near enough to get a shot, and no cormorants on the river, but these were still in the tree when I returned close to sunset. I tried to get closer to the tree but that caused them all to take off, so this was the best shot I got. It was mostly monochrome so I have accentuated its willow pattern look by adding more of a blue wash to it.

The camera I grabbed to snap the swans when I left the car was my spare Pentax K100D body with the faulty Pentax 55-300mm lens that I am replacing with a Sigma 70-300mm lens, due any day now. It was attached for testing purposes and ironically it behaved perfectly all afternoon.

Probably better Huge.


Swan On Grass