Close to a Cormorant
It’s a beautiful morning in my local country park. I see another photographer and we exchange pleasantries. He says it’s much better early in the morning before people arrive and when the light is better. I tell him this is my early in the morning. He snorts.
There’s a Cormorant unreasonably close to the bank of the lake.
![Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cormorant-The-Hall-of-Einar-3456.jpg)
I love the splayed tail and huge flipper-feet. They must be so powerful under the water. It’s preening obsessively.:
![Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cormorant-The-Hall-of-Einar-3424.jpg)
Its face is a complex patchwork of feather, skin, pattern and colour. They aren’t the plain black birds they appear to be from a distance at all:
![Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cormorant-The-Hall-of-Einar-3444.jpg)
I’ve written about the conflict between people and Cormorants before. Here are my thoughts on why people cause so much trouble for them:
![Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cormorant-The-Hall-of-Einar-3438.jpg)
Over forty years ago I saw a Cormorant and wrote about it in my nature notebooks:
![Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) 2016 David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Cormorant-The-Hall-of-Einar-photograph-c-2016-David-Bailey-not-the.jpg)
![Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cormorant-The-Hall-of-Einar-3422.jpg)
I’m glad I came out early. Well, my early.