Cormorants in the city

[HansV]

We occasionally see a cormorant or two in our city center, but because of the cold winter weather, we now have a large number:

Cormorants.jpg

They are impressive birds:

Cormorant.jpg

Many birds are eager to be fed:

Coots.jpg

[PaulB]

Nice shots, thanks. Are those coots in the last picture? And what is a 'doofpot'?

[HansV]

Yes, the last picture is of a flock of coots - someone off to the left of the picture was feeding them with breadcrumbs.

A "doofpot" is an extinguisher. When houses were heated by wood, peat or coal, it was dangerous to let the fire burn on unattendedly, so the burning material was placed in a container with an airtight cover. This quickly extinguishes the fire.

Doofpot.jpg

The sign in the picture is of a restaurant named "In den Doofpot", or "At the extinguisher". Presumably the building had a prominent extinguisher in the past.

[PaulB]

Thanks, Hans. Have a merry Christmas!

[HansV]

Thanks, and the same to you and yours!

[John Gray]

Your cormorant is doing an Angel of the North impression!

[HansV]

Yeah, but it wasn't intentional...

[Hey Jude]

We occasionally see a cormorant or two in our city center, but because of the cold winter weather, we now have a large number:
They are impressive birds:
Many birds are eager to be fed:

Wonderful photographs!!!!

[HansV]

Here is another one I took this afternoon. If you look closely you can see that the ducks and coots aren't very friendly with each other.

More birds.jpg

[PaulB]

And swans, too!! Don't see any geese... hiding because it's Christmas?

[HansV]

The geese have migrated to the south...

[steveh]

The geese have migrated to the south...

Good pictures Hans

It bought to mind one of my favourite nonsense poems from when I was a boy, it is by Christopher Isherwood

The common cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag
The reason you will see no doubt
It is to keep the lightning out
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

[BobH]

Great pics, Hans!

Thank you for sharing them. It settled something in my mind that has long confused me. We have both cormorants and anhingas here in Texas. I could never remember which was which until I saw your post of the cormorant. The birds are nearly identical except that one has an bent beak. Approximately the last eighth part of the beak toward the end is bent downward on the anhinga. My mnemonic is now that 'anhingas have hinged beaks'. Don't know why that never came to mind before now.

Happy New Year!