We are experiencing extremely low temperatures this weekend and last nights temps dropped to roughly -5 degrees. Unfortunately, I forgot to get up and run both the hot and cold water every couple hours to avoid pipe freezing and my hot water pipe was frozen when I woke at 5:30 in the morning. Luckily it is only that pipe as I do at least still have cold water flowing. Now, I patiently wait for the guys to get here with the salamander heater to thaw it out. When I called at 8 am, I was already number 27 on the list, so I'm expecting it to be a while before they get here.

As I sit here and wait, I've been working on my pictures from my Florida trip last April. And when I got to some shots of a cormorant I photographed, I thought it was a good time to take a break and write up a blog post. 

It was the afternoon of my last night in Florida and I went to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. There was so much activity going on there and I got to enjoy so many different animals. Although, there were so many animals there, there were only a few cormorants and when this one cormorant sat in a really nice spot for me, I couldn't resist snapping away. The sun was hitting it so nicely, which was great because it made the beautiful markings of the cormorant really stand out. When they are in the shade, you really can't see how stunning they are and they appear to be just a brown blob. But, with the right light, they really shine.

Cormorants are an aquatic bird in the phalacrocoracidae family. They are a medium to large sized bird and can weigh in up to 11 pounds. They have dark brown feathers with stunning markings and webbed feet between their four toes. They are a diving bird and they dine primarily on fish. Cormorants will nest in colonies in trees and along the shoreline of a body of water. They brood once per year and their eggs are a chalky-blue colour.

Most people I talk to tend not to have much interest in them. As for me, I love them. I think they are a stunning bird and fascinating to watch. Especially when they first come out of the water and spread their wings to dry.

CormorantA cormorant perched in a tree at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Boynton Beach, FL. This image was taken by Debbie Quick from Debs Creative Images.