Despite the gloom I headed over to Regent's Park at lunchtime. The light was awful, and the paths muddy. To be fair, it wasn't raining and nor was it especially cold. I entered the park and was looking around some of the favoured rat haunts (without success) when a flock of greylags flew overhead. 
The sight of the geese encouraged me to head over to the lake (as though I need encouragement!). Anyway, I'm glad I did. It was not good weather for photography and I played around with camera settings while photographing more 'muddy ducks', finally settling for an ISO of either 800 or 1000 and a wide aperture. Even so, I struggled to get a shutter speed worthy of the name. I'd only taken a handful of test shots when I caught a glimpse in the distance of a bird descending to the water. I was fairly sure what it was, and it was the first time I'd seen one in the park.
This is what I'd seen.
Now I'm familiar with the cormorants over at London Bridge where the river provides good feeding, but I suspect there is precious little to sustain a cormorant in these small lakes. It didn't catch anything while I was watching, despite repeated dives.
Watching the cormorant provided an interesting contrast with another of the diving birds. The cormorant always re-emerges within a relatively short distance of the dive point. This makes it reasonably easy to follow them with the camera, even when they spend a good deal of time below the surface. You can plant yourself in a good spot and fire away. Great crested grebes, on the other hand seem to have a quite different technique. I watched this one as it paddled and dived. 
And then had to search for it. It emerged about 30 yards downstream. It did this consistently, but helpfully heading in the direction I needed to go.
No new fox photos tonight, although the trail cam has revealed that once again we have a limping fox. It was only on camera briefly, but it appears to have injured a hind leg. As ever, it seemed perfectly mobile despite the injury. I'd like to see it close up, but I suspect that as with nearly all such injuries it will heal by itself soon enough.
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM.
gdare
13 Jan 2011If there is fish I don`t see a reason for cormorants to avoid that lake :chef:
cakkleberrylane
13 Jan 2011Yes, that seems unusual for the cormorat. I would think that with the colder weather they would all be eating even more than usual and looking for waters with a lot of fish.
The grebes are such beautiful birds and look to be very graceful.
It's sad about the fox, good though that you are feeding him so he doesn't futher injure himself by hunting.
SittingFox
13 Jan 2011Always good to get close ups of cormorants. I sometimes just get the splash where the bird was :whistle:
Words
13 Jan 2011Adele, it was great to get close to the cormorant. It's always a bit of a stretch on the river (and even worse at Rottingdean), but these were not too far off (even with the 200mm lens).
Words
13 Jan 2011Darko, I suspect the fish have a very hard time in that lake. Too many birds trying to feed . I've never seen any sign of them though I suppose they are there somewhere. The cormorants do much better in the river.
Words
13 Jan 2011Lois, you are probably right that the cormorant was hungry. I'm sure though that there are better fishing grounds than this one (which no doubt is why they are very rarely on this particular stretch). I need to explore some of the other park lakes when I get a chance!
I think the fox is fine. Last night's cam caught three foxes and no limps!
wellisteffi
14 Jan 2011I like your posts. :up:
Always nice to look at and read.
Words
14 Jan 2011Thanks Steffi!