It’s not what you might think. I was peering over the wall a few yards to the right of the new lifeboat house when I noticed something moving on the rocks below, just above the crashing waves. It quickly became obvious that it was either a cormorant or a shag. Looking more closely, it was slender, with quite a long neck and a steep forehead. If my identification is correct, it was a shag.
It appeared to have jumped out of the sea on to the rocks and was making its way slowly up the seaweed-covered, slippery-looking rocks. It’s feet looked enormous – great, webbed structures that flopped on the rocks every time it moved upward. It did this by hopping from one rock to another: it seemed to steady itself before jumping up to the next rock, it’s large feet slapping against the wet surface as it landed. It performed this manoeuvre several times before it appeared satisfied with its position and started to preen itself.
Several pigeons landed on the rocks, close to the shag, but it seemed unperturbed by their presence and just carried on preening.
I looked about to see if there were any other shags or cormorants around and the nearest I could see were on the rocks on the sea-side of St Catherine’s Island. There are usually several birds on these rocks, usually standing with their wings outstretched, looking positively prehistoric and reptilian. These birds look so ungainly on land, out of their element. But in the water they are magnificent; they are brilliant swimmers and I like the way the shags give a little jump before they dive in pursuit of their prey.
