Another shot from my walk along the C&O towpath. This is a cormorant. I understand that this is the only variety of cormorant found on the east coast. In addition, this is one of only two or three varieties that have freshwater habitat. There was a group (gaggle, fluttering, flock, exhaltation?) of about 20-30 of them in the "wide spot in the canal". (In Nebraska, we called that a town.)

Another little piece of cormorant trivia I recently found out ... this guy is sunning himself (herself?) with his back to the sun, although he will turn around to sun his tummy. They do this for two reasons. First, cormorants don't have much oil in their feathers, which isn't great for water birds, so they have to sun themselves to dry off (except for rookeries with electric dryers). Second, they use the sun to tan and tone their feathers, since it is well known that buff cormorants get more chicks.

For much cooler shots of some cormorants (a different breed/type/whatever), see my New Orleans Zoo gallery

PS - Crop, level adjustment, USM, frame and sign.

Others from this series ...