A beautiful cormorant. Nice capture, Simon.
Do you know why the cormorant must dry its wings?
You often see seabirds smoothing their feathers with the beak. In fact, they have a gland with a grease and they smear their feathers with this grease to waterproof it. The cormorant is the only seabird to be deprived of this gland.
When he floats on water, he is a lot lower than the others and he must dry its feather to avoid to be cold.

Perfect title. great picture.

Thanks for the kind comments both, and for the interesting info, Pierre :-)

Makes me think of that Little Engine That Could "I think I can, I think I can!" ;) Beautiful photo Simon.

Wonderful shot, Si, and quickly into my Favorites. Thanks for sharing this...and thanks also for reminding me of one of my favorite books of all time. :)

The reason Cormorants don't have a oil gland to keep them waterproof is because they use to be flying birds. That's how they got the the islands, and whent they did, no animals tried to eat them and they lost the ability to fly. Great picture!

reminds me of Finding Nemo
i know im childish :D
great shot and i love the title

Thank you all for your kindness - I appreciate your comments. I don't know about cormorants in other parts of the world, Katie, but ours can still fly. They usually fly very straight and low over the water as though they're on a mission, but they always look like they're working hard at it, which is why I thought this one might like to glide or soar for a while....

Wonderful detail on this bird's wings Simon. I am awestruck by it! The title is cute, but what I learned from reading what those before me wrote is priceless. Where else can I go get free, friendly history/nature lessons illustrated with some of the greatest images of all time? caedes.net is the place! Kudo's to you Sir..job well done. Thank you.

Love the shot and the title makes it even better. Good that you refreshed my biology lessons Pierre. I had allmost forgot these kind of things. I was totally into such when I grew up. Nature is such a fascinating place. :)

Thank you, Mimi and Klas. I agree wholeheartedly with both of you, about caedes and nature!

cute shot, makes yu think its scared of the water poor thing. nice capture

amazing shot, there is a comorant by me that sits on the same bouy every day with his wings outstretched, just posing for a picture. Always when I dont have my camera though sadly. Love this though. Thanks

Great shot again Simon ..Thank you