This juvenile Cormorant has been hanging around Stratford for a couple of weeks now, but up until today it’s always managed to evade my lens. I’d even taken to calling it Nemesis. Today though, R spotted it diving in the river close to the Bancroft Gardens, and I managed to put on a sufficient turn of speed to catch up with it before it could execute its usual disappearing trick.
When we saw it emerge from the water with a fish we were very excited, as I daresay was the fish, though probably not in a good way. I know virtually nothing about fish, and care less, unless they’re sitting on a plate in front of me coated in crisp, salty batter, but I have spent a while trying to identify this one so that I could at least commemorate it with a hashtag. Sadly though, I’ve had to admit defeat. “Largeish, silvery, freshwater fish, with pink fins” elicited some frankly ridiculous suggestions from the interwebs, even when further qualified with the location, but if my life depended on it I’d probably hazard a guess at a Roach, or maybe a Bream. If anyone can tell me, please do get in touch.
My second photo shows the unfortunate victim just as it was finally disappearing – and the highly elastic throat that allowed the Cormorant to swallow it. The bird then immediately went back to diving, though I couldn’t imagine how it could possibly get anything else into its crop. But I haven’t yet forgotten what it’s like to live with a teenager who can apparently eat more than their own body weight in cheese on a daily basis, and maybe the same kind of behaviour manifests itself among teenage Cormorants as well.
EDIT: A friend of mine who’s an experienced angler thinks that the fish is a Roach – which is more than good enough for me.
R: L2, C3, D1.
