One of most iconic birds, the cormorant, is surrounded by myths and legends. In the Greek story of Ulysses a cormorant saves the hero after a great storm by giving him a ‘life jacket’... In Norway cormorants flying together signify a message from the dead. Even now, the bird is seen as a good luck talisman for fishermen. In China they actually train them to fish, tethering the bird by its throat so it can’t swallow its catch.
Thankfully, here you’re more likely to see a cormorant flying fast and low over water. Or perhaps standing on a rock by the shore, it’s wings outstretched.
Surface divers with wings that are designed to become waterlogged, they can go as deep as 150 feet.
After a fishing session they will open them out to dry, facing into the wind to get maximum benefit. With a small wingspan for their body length the need to work hard to keep airborne.
Their name comes from two Latin words, corvus and marinus meaning ‘Raven of the sea’. Strangely, they share a habit with owls. They regurgitate pellets made of the compressed bones and skin of their prey. In the case of cormorants that can be fish, eels or even sea snakes.
I don’t think you’ll find many sea snakes in West Dumbartonshire, but you’ll see Cormorants on most stretches of water, from the Clyde to Loch Lomond and even on some of our reservoirs.