Cormorant With Fish

Cormorants are interesting birds to photograph. They fish underwater and then “pop-up” when they catch a fish. But it is amazing how they can swallow the fish whole. Sometimes it takes quite a while for them to finally get it down! I have also seen them catch a leaf underwater and then look surprised at their catch when they surface. They also have a very interesting eye color! The color of their iris has variously been described as blue-green, turquoise or aquamarine but whatever word you use the color is unique. The Featured Image was taken at the J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Sanibel, Florida with a 400mm Canon DO lens on a Canon 7D.

Cormorant Roosting on dead tree limb, Lake Woodruff NWR, DeLand Florida, Tamron 150-600mm @256mm, Canon 7D
Another Cormorant Roosting on dead tree limb, Lake Woodruff NWR, DeLand Florida, Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm, Canon 7D

Another Cormorant Panorama From Brigantine

When photographing at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in NJ, you often see large groups of Cormorants swim by in the channels along the Wildlife Drive. This group had about 92+ Cormorants in the Group. It is hard to get an actual count because some are under water as you are counting the group. I counted 92 Cormorants in the image, but some more were not visible as I was counting.

Small Group of Cormorants swimming by the shoreline. 400mm DO Lens, 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV

49 Cormorant Panorama From BRIGANTine

I was cleaning up backup Hard Drives and I found this panorama of Cormorants. This was taken last June at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. I was using a Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 600mm with a Sigma 2X teleconverter for a focal length of 1200mm. The Panorama is made with 9 horizontal images, aligned & blended in Photoshop. Even with the Sigma 2X teleconverter I was using autofocus with the Canon R. For some reason the Canon R does not see the Sigma 2X Teleconverter and still thinks the lens with the teleconverter is a f/6.3 aperture. Even the Adobe Camera Raw info data states it is f/6.2 (not even the f/6.3) lens.

Cropped Detail Image from the left side of the panorama

Cormorants In Early Morning Sunrise

I was going through & cleaning up some backup hard drives. I found these images of Cormorants that were taken at a local small Wildlife Area where we used to live. The featured image is a 2 shot panorama of a Cormorant taking flight in the early morning sunrise. Images taken with a Sigma 300-800mm lens @ 800mm.

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Panorama of Cormorant Take-Off In Early Morning Sunrise

Still going through my Backup Hard Drives for interesting images to post because of the stay at home order in NJ. Also helps to clear images not needed anymore and makes it easier to find images I want. Supposedly they will be lessening the stay at home order soon! This is an early morning, quickly taken, 2 image Panorama of a Cormorant taking flight from some branches in the water. 2 images shot @ 800mm and assembled in Photoshop. I liked the Black Cormorant against the warm colors of the sunrise in the water. Below another Cormorant, different Snag & Day – The Celery Farm Natural Area, Allendale, NJ.

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Another Cormorant, Different Snag, 2 img Pano, 400mm f/4 DO w, 1.4x Teleconverter

 

Cormorant Stretching It’s Wings

An early morning image taken years ago at a local Nature Area. It has a small lake so many times you could get interesting images of fairly close by birds. The rising sun gave a nice glow to the water. It also highlighted the black cormorant.

Cormorant Portraits, Sunning On Treetops

We saw a quite a few Cormorants sunning on the top of trees as we were walking the trails on our trip to Lake Woodruff NWR. The featured image was taken with a 300mm f/4 lens. I liked the strong sunlight on the Cormorant enabling more detail in the dark black bird. The images here were 2 different cormorants from different tree branches.Cormorant_v1_LW_7D_300mm_MG_0257

Additional Cormorant Images:

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Cormorant @ 273mm

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Cormorant @ 375mm

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Cormorant @ 375mm

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Cormorant @ 375mm

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Cormorant @ 309mm

Cormorant Catches Breakfast

I was watching this Cormorant diving and swimming around looking for a meal. After several dives he did finally  surface with a fish for breakfast. These were from a previous trip to the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge In Sanibel Florida. Images taken with a 300mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.

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Cormorant Drying Wings

As I was photographing the Pelicans, this Cormorant flew in and started fishing in the water. After a few minutes it surfaced nearby. It came on shore to spread its wings to dry out. It is amazing how long some of them stay in this pose. This one stayed for about 10 minutes. Same pose, just looking left & right, so 1 shot of this tells it all. It also seems the Pelicans do not get too close to the Cormorants, where small shorebirds mingle in with them. Shot with 300mm with a 1.4x teleconverter.

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The Cormorant flying in between two already there.

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Cormorant after coming out of the water, getting ready to dry it’s wings.

Cormorant’s Disappointing Meal

I was at the Celery Farm this morning and a Cormorant was working the area for a meal. He kept diving and then coming up with nothing. He was fairly far out when he dove down to try again. Right after he dove a Gull landed nearby. When he surfaced with a large fish, it was right under the Gull. The startled Cormorant dropped his fish and then went after the gull. It happened so quickly I did not get a sharp shot. Then both went on their separate ways. The cormorant came closer as he was diving and fishing. Closeup, he surfaced with his new meal. Unfortunately it was a leaf.

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Cormorant surfacing and dropping fish

 

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Cormorant’s Tasty Meal

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