Hell, it’s a dangerous world out there, or so I witnessed this morning while leaning half asleep against a window frame, waiting for the coffee machine to finish drip-drip-dripping. As I glanced cross-eyed across the river, I noticed several birds flying in from the Palu Wetlands just downriver from us.
A flock, clutch, brotherhood, brace … no, a Gulp of Cormorants* settled on the Charente river and commenced fishing for their breakfast.
Now you see them – now you don’t.
*The term ‘A gulp of cormorants’ was taken from the utterly delightfully nerdy post “A Dissimulation of Birds” by Burly Birds [** My own invention]
While fishing, the cormorants inadvertently got closer and closer to a Swagger of Swans** feeding close to the bank below our house.
The cormorants paid no heed to their large cousins, being focused exclusively on spearing small river fish. I saw the shiny silver tidbits disappear in their gullets again and again. The hunt was quite successful this morning!
The swans, however, being so much more slow-grazing and placidly-drifting felt crowded by the hectic divers and moved to defend their realm against the hook-beaked dark-feathered cormorants.
Dive, brothers, dive!!
Just as quickly as tempers flared, they calmed again and peace resumed on the Charente.
Time to fly home to La Palu for a post-breakfast snooze.
And my coffee was ready as well!
Claudinha's Personal Musing und so 