The cormorant tree

We hear the swoosh of wing and air as they fly over the house in v formation on their way to and from the harbour. We see them in the distance, sat on the breakwater and the lighthouse, as we walk on the boardwalk by the bay in Summerside.

We see them flapping their wings to dry them as they rest along an inlet. 

However, we have never seen them this way.

Double crested cormorants are fishers with webbed feet. Our experiences with them have always been by the sea, so it was unusual to see them in a tree, 

with the webbed feet draped down over the branches.

This spruce tree was by the side of Stewart’s Pond on the Westmoreland River. It is part of a new nature park on the river which is in the Westmoreland Watershed. People and cormorants fish in the pond for rainbow and brook trout. 

My husband and I watched these pre-historic looking birds for a long time as they preened themselves on their lofty perches. 

The yellow-orange at the base off the beak is the only colour on these birds, whose necks and breasts are tinged with white. There is a natural fish hook at the end of the beak.

While we explored the park, the cormorants swooped into the water. We saw them through the trees, disappearing into the water to fish, surfacing a distance away. 

No catch and release for these fishers!