Cormorant Sunning on Mossy Stump
Cormorants are truly beautiful birds. Graceful in design, intriguingly colored, sporting feather patterns usually seen on game birds, and adorned with sapphire-blue green eyes that mesmerize. The Double-crested Cormorant pictured here is a juvenile, probably hatched this year. Cormorants love their perches, especially if they are out in open water. Anything large enough for at least a single bird, low to the water, will almost always have a Cormorant on it in areas where they summer.
Cherry Creek is one of the big Cormorant hangouts here in Colorado. The south eastern corner of the lake is littered with isolated tree stumps, logs, and felled tree roots. Cormorants cover every available dry surface out on the water during spring and summer, sometimes piling on 20 or 30 birds to a single uprooted stump.
Equipment: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 600mm f/4 L IS II, Canon EF 1.4x TC III (840mm f/5.6)
Exposure: 1/500s f/7.1 @ ISO 200
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