From late autumn to early spring you are quite likely to spot tall black birds atop the chimney of Ebley Mill. Three or four cormorants seem to return annually for their winter sojourn here. Generally feeding on fish in the canal, you will see them swimming fairly low in the water, diving and then popping up, after a while, some distance away. Having feathers which aren’t waterproofed allows them to become streamlined as they move underwater, but they will then need to get dry, so to the typical cormorant stance of wings outstretched in the sunshine.
Our cormorants probably spend the summer months on the coast, perhaps at the nearby Slimbridge wetlands, but each day might fly tens of miles in search of a good shoal of fish.
Further information, images and sounds
the Wildlife Trusts - Cormorant
