The WTFerfowl! Of course! I should’ve known — THAT’S a cormorant! It’s a double-crested cormorant! And I saw it, this morning, exactly where Mother said it would be, perched on this weird arched metal jobbie in the middle of False Creek. (I’ve no idea what that is — a piece of modern art? A water pump? Something to do with boats?) Anyway, it’s a wee metal archey thing sticking up out of the water, and cormorants like to sit on it. Two of them were there, this morning, when I went to check. They’re still there, now. I can see them from my balcony, through my longest lens (just the shapes of them, not their markings) — but now I know where to look.
The next challenge will be to get a picture. Today, I went all the way down to the water’s edge, but the archey thing’s on the other side of False Creek. If I wanted a photo of the cormorants, I’d have to get closer, somehow. I tried to snap them from this side, but all I got were fuzzy black shapes, with orangey smudges round their beaks.
It seems I’ve got two options, if I want crisp, luscious snaps of cormorants:
a) cross the water, somehow;
b) haunt the seawall, till I spot one on this side.
I’ve seen them on this side, before, but always hiding between boats, or skulking under the jetty near Monk McQueen’s restaurant. They’re not easy to approach — the minute they see you coming, they melt into the shadows, or vanish behind some obstacle…obstinate birds! Getting a picture from this side will be challenging. That leaves…going to the other side. It looks like I could get within forty feet of their perch, from there. I could snap them all day, if I felt so inclined. But I haven’t been on the other side of the water since…well, since I lived there, which was ages ago. Four or five years, I think. What say? — time I went back?
Apparently, there are two other species of cormorant I might also spot around here, with a bit of luck: Brandt’s and pelagic ones. I’d particularly like to see the former…those do look a bit regal (for cormorants, anyway), all shiny, with yon blue patches.
