Several days ago at Murrell’s Inlet fishing pier, I spotted this Double-crested Cormorant sunning…..
….and preening.
His beak was covered with feather down from the preening. Can you see his gorgeous blue eye? Interestingly, the inside of their mouth is also blue.
After photographing him, a gentleman approached me to ask what kind of bird he was, he had seen the bird here for three days, and it’s wing was injured. The Cormorant never stretched so I couldn’t tell. I told the gentleman this was a diving, swimming bird that fed on fish and hoped he was able to take care of & feed himself.
And so guess what? I later worried a little bit about that young Cormorant too.
I returned yesterday and found the Cormorant still there, and this time he was diving & feeding in the high tide waters. I felt a little better.
The Cormorant gave me a nice profile before another quick dive. I didn’t stay with him, because I didn’t want to discourage his feeding. My ‘new’ gentleman friend was also there walking the pier, and he was so excited to see the Cormorant fishing.
When I later came back pass the Cormorant, he was back up on his perch. He stretched his wings to sun himself, and I saw the end half of his right wing was missing. Poor fella.
I’ll be looking for him on my returns to the fishing pier.
