Identify this goose / duck / water bird

Walking down to the supermarket earlier and saw an unusual looking bird by the river. We get cranes and ducks down there but not seen this one before. Bigger than a duck and looked quite sinister. Any idea what it is?

Cormorant

Cormorant, according to an AI reverse search.

Its a cormorant.

Shag

Shags look like a cormorant but wearing a fancy headdress feather.

Shagorant then.

Cheers, cormorant it is. Never seen one around here before (river wandle in Merton) . Not a pretty bird.

Hybrid Veloci-Swan, careful they hunt in packs and take turns breaking your arms…

Aye, thats my wee cousin Grant

They sometimes come surprisingly far inland.

Cheers, cormorant it is. Never seen one around here before (river wandle in Merton) . Not a pretty bird.

I’ve seen them in the Wandle, and they are common in the Thames in central London now.

Have you seen the Little Egrets in the Wandle? I once saw about 4 in different locations going up the Wandle Trail to Merton Abbey Mills, but I haven’t seen any for quite a while.

The Kingfishers in the Wandle by Beddington are quite easy to see if you sit on the river bank on a warm summer’s day and wait patiently for about 10 minutes. Although they just appear as a streak of electric blue as they fly past.

Baby robin.

This place is slipping.

The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
You follow the idea, no doubt?
It’s to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds
Have never thought of, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

I only just discovered that this is by Christopher Isherwood

Have you seen the Little Egrets in the Wandle? I once saw about 4 in different locations going up the Wandle Trail to Merton Abbey Mills, but I haven’t seen any for quite a while.

The Kingfishers in the Wandle by Beddington are quite easy to see if you sit on the river bank on a warm summer’s day and wait patiently for about 10 minutes. Although they just appear as a streak of electric blue as they fly past.

We’ve see the kingfishers and the little egrets but out on the river (Hogsmill or Tolworth Brook?) by Horton in Epsom when heading out that way on the cx bikes, they’re pretty cool. Morden Hall Park had a few nesting herons in it last year.

A few months ago Mrs K was walking along the wandle by Colliers Wood and stopped to watch a heron when it suddenly lunged into the water and came out with an eel in its beak. Pretty cool for SW London.

I can remember as a child this bit of the Wandle being pretty turgid with. bid waste paper site polluting the area in general.

We get them round our local lochs and rivers and we’re about 50 miles (as the cormorant flies) from the sea.

This one was on a crannog (man-made island) in Loch Vaa. Didn’t seem too perturbed by us swimming round.

I can remember as a child this bit of the Wandle being pretty turgid with. bid waste paper site polluting the area in general

When I first moved to South Wimbledon just over 20 years ago it was a bit of a dump (literally at times). The work from Morden Hall park all up through Earlsfield has been a great improvement, the colliers Wood bit by the Saver center is trolley free! It’s great to see things going in the right direction, was in Morden Hall at the weekend and reminded me how nice it is now

We’ve see the kingfishers and the little egrets but out on the river (Hogsmill or Tolworth Brook?) by Horton in Epsom when heading out that way on the cx bikes, they’re pretty cool.

Will keep an eye out, planning heading that way on the gravel bike tomorrow

We get cranes and ducks down there but not seen this one before.

Ducks – yes, cranes – no. Cranes are very rare birds in the UK! And they’re found on marshland, usually.

Cranes are very rare birds in the UK! And they’re found on marshland, usually.

Yes meant heron, twitchers can stand down! (was talking bout cranes earlier in the day and must have got it stuck in my mind)

I’ve seen a crane in Oxford city centre.

Shag?

we’re about 50 miles (as the cormorant flies) from the sea.

Cormorants don’t fly you silly sausage. They all have Uber accounts these days!

Shag?

Dinner first?

Shag?
Dinner first?

Never seen one around here before (river wandle in Merton) . Not a pretty bird.

Cormorants will go anywhere there’s fish to be had, doesn’t have to be salt water. For a while there’d be nearly a dozen perching on the high voltage pylons alongside the Batheaston bypass going into Bath on the A4 – right next to the River Avon, and nobody to bother them along there. I’ve seen them around here, Chippenham, and some of the smaller rivers, about 70 miles inland, bugger-all to a cormorant, and they just follow the rivers inland anyway, just like gulls.
They’re adaptable birds, like quite a few aquatic birds, Kittiwakes nest on the big warehouses and some bridges in Liverpool, because they resemble their natural habitats, like cliff faces, same with Peregrine falcons, which are now common in big city centres, lots of pigeons, starlings, etc

There’s a bunch of Canada geese on the river in the centre of town at the moment as well.

Cormorants are common visitors to Doxey Marshes here in Staffordshire – probably not far away from as far away as you can be from the seaside here on the big island.

We have Egrets both Great and Little round these parts now.

It’s almost like the climate is changing…

It’s almost like the climate is changing

Get in the rising sea

There are cormorants local to us. If you mtbike around the Roman lakes, they can be seen on the tree in the middle of the largest lake by the visitor centre. They’re often on our local canal (Peak Forest) and the river Goyt.

Weird as they are diving birds, but don’t have waterproof feathers. They need to spread the wings out to dry when on land (usually on the top of high trees around  their fishing source).

I see them on the river Irwell in Salford fairly often. Even spotted one a couple of times in Clowes Park, a bit odd as it’s a small very shallow lake, I doubt the cormorants had much luck there. Probably resting on its way past.

Goosanders are seasonal visitors to this area, always nice to see them.