NEW GORY STORIES and MORBID MOMENTS BLOOD BROTHERS

Failed Bird Crash Landing

I was hanging out with Pops REcording some footage for http://www.youtube.com/scenicvideos when we realized the birds were a little nutty, after seeing one bird dive in the water after landing we were hoping to see another, and sure enough this little fellow came through like a champ. As you can see at the end the bird was not hurt.

The bird is known as a Cormorant. The Cormorants are a fairly large family of fisheaters residing along freshwater and saltwater shores around the world, yet all are so closely related that all are usually placed within a single genus Phalacrocorax. Despite spending much time in the water, they do not possess the waterproofing oil of other seabirds and so must spend much time drying their wings. That's what the Crowned Cormorant at Cape Town, South Africa, is doing (left).

Cormorants are found almost everywhere that water meets shore. They use traditional sites for roosting, sunning, and nesting. These tend to be on islets, jetties, docks, or drowned trees with a 360 degree view to avoid predators. Cormorants are often easy to see, but they can be quite difficult to approach.