Nine days ago on September 29th 2019, I
published an entry about a lone
cormorant who was spending time atop a that's rock within
Turtle Pond. The other day when I was in
Central Park, I stopped by that same area only to find area he/she was still atop the rock (at least I think the creature was the same one, and nearby birders seemed to think so too). The bird had company this time, as you can see from the image atop this entry, a lone
turtle joined him/her on the rock. I found myself intrigued by the cormorant's beak that has a sharp hook at the end (check it out in the image above).
I would imagine a cormorant must be mindful of that hook when preening, as you yourself might find yourself thinking, upon looking at the next series of photos.
Upon my returning home, I did so me googling and learned through a number of sources including
a web-page for the EU, I discovered cormorants
"catch fish by diving from the surface, chasing their prey under water and seizing it with the hooked bill."
The aforementioned page acknowledges that cormorants appear black at a distance, but closer inspection reveals that the individual feathers have a "a scale-like effect" and that certainly seemed to be the case with the cormorant who'd been spending time atop a rock in Turtle Pond.
This page also points out a "cormorant has broad, webbed feet, and the one I encountered is no exception. In the following picture, he/she has his/her large webbed foot in a cupping position...
... and in the one after that (where he/she is standing in one leg) you can get a sense of how large this bird's foot (tucked underneath his/her body) is.
Seems to me, though I didn't find it in my research, that this cormorant has learned the art of yoga (as seen in the image directly below).
I'll leave it at that for today, except to let you know, for your information, dear reader, cormorants are featured in my book series,
Words In Our Beak.
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