Cormorant: the birdy loves the fishy!

Definitely better in large ("L")!

Well, I had an amazing photo amble this afternoon!
I went to Wandsworth Common (after dropping by Eagle Pond and being thoroughly unimpressed by the Egyptian geese's behaviour: they've all been lying on the same patch of grass since I visited late in the morning!), and there was loads to see so I got quite a few photos. There were shovelers on the pond which I've not seen before (well, not this year) as well as all the usual suspects. There was also a heron being picturesque, and I saw the other Egyptian fledglings (i.e. not "my" ones, but the Wandsworth ones...), including the runty one which is still tiny (compared to the others) but seems to be OK and is now fully fledged.

There were several (at least 4) cormorants on the pond, and I saw this one dive so kept my camera trained on the area: it surfaced with a fish, which it shook briefly (possibly just to dry itself), before bucking its head and catching the fish head first to swallow it whole. I managed to catch it in mid-toss, but wish I'd been closer as this is a crop of a photo I took with my lens at full telephoto.

I've put an HDR image of the train tracks running through Wandsworth Common on my Blipfolio here.