After a phone call off Sarfraz re a poss Shag I dashed up to Ogden Res, Grane to have a look . I hit all the green lights and was there in 8 mins! An ad continental Cormorant and a thin billed juv was the only birds in the area of the res Sarfraz had said the bird was.. Defo a juv Cormoran. 4 other cormorants were on the res and all of them eventually grouped up and hauled out on the roadside banking.. No Shag. Pity as it looked a possible on the photo. 3 Gt BB Gulls, 7 BH Gulls, 1 GC Grebe and 4 mallard were only other birds in the Res..
-- Edited by C Bel on Monday 18th of January 2021 04:16:40 PM
Here are the photos. At every angle the bill looks very slender, I know it is at a distance. It's colour seems to match an adult breeding-non-breeding Shag. Juvenile Cormorants would not look so dark from above? Andy Young and David Nuttall both gave me a tip to watch it dive - remarkably it did leap out of the water too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnFxBfRN7ak
The last photo - the bird in flight, may not actually be the same bird.
ID being left as Cormorant unless someone comes out and specifically says it is a Shag and for whatever reason which won't happen due to the distance of the bird anyway.
-- Edited by sarfraz on Tuesday 19th of January 2021 06:00:17 PM
