No, I’m not taking dialogue from an Austin Powers movie. I’m talking about the actual bird. We get several species of waterfowl in our backyard on a daily basis. But it’s not often we get visited by Shags, or as they’re more commonly know, Cormorants. This one decided our place was as good as any to dry out its feathers on a cool but sunny day.
Quite content to let me share the moment, she looked less interested in what I was doing than where her next meal was coming from. I couldn’t help but see the similarity to a penguin as she (or maybe he) modeled for my camera. You know there are two species of penguins don’t you? Black ones and white ones. Here’s how you tell the difference. The white ones will always walk toward you and the black ones will always walk away from you. My wife is sooooo tired of that joke.
Anyway, I thought you might be interested.
Yeah, baby!
The Cvillean 
Happy to see you back from the precipice. You have to admit, politics is entertaining. Too bad you took your other blog down. I just bought Greg Guttfeld’s new book ‘The Joy of Hate.’ Too true and too funny. Hey aren’t you glad you never made General…or Admiral? Dianne
Or Senator or Congressman or President or Governor or…………….
You made me smile again here. I’ve both heard of and seen the bird. I didn’t know they were also called cormorants in politer society. It reminds me of a time when I was a boy, when I saw something delicious on the menu called, “Knickerbocker Glory” and I didn’t ask for it because I was too embarrased to say the word “Knicker”. Now you’ve given me the word “Cormorant” I can chatter away about these impressive wildfowl as much as I like, as long as I don’t keep calling them “birds” in the wrong company.
Hi ducks. Since I posted this, we had a whole flock of them swimming around in the back doing their fishing thing. They would come up with a small fish and proceed to swallow it. I was surprised to see other shags try to get the fish out of the mouth of the successful one before it could swallow its prey. Very entertaining.
Pingback: And Then She Spat Out The Fish « myothervoices
Does the word ‘shag’ have the same connotations on your side of the pond, as it does over ‘ere?
Oh yeah.
I wasn’t sure if it was a British thing 🙂
However, “bird” for girl is strictly British.
“two nations divided by a common language” ?
So many words, so much subtlety of meaning.
I was going to ask how you determined it was a female when you answered my question.
I love wildlife, maybe because I was raised in town. My kids, however, grew up in the sticks so when we had to stop the car for deer crossing, they didn’t even look up from whatever they were doing.
I’ve started a photo journal of all the birds who alight in our yard. Probably have 3 dozen species so far. I’m going to post it some day, but like most of my projects, it never quite gets done. Sound familiar?
Looking forward to seeing more of your feathered visitors. You haven’t had any penguins there, I trust?
Not yet, but then again, it’s not winter yet.
typical Al joke ! but I like the Shag
I figured the British would appreciate this the most.
You get so many interesting visitors in your yard. I’m jealous. We have a pesky squirrel.
We would gladly rent Queenie out to you. No more pesky squirrel!
That’s a joke?
Not really. It’s a scientific fact.
I’m with Bernice – what joke?
OK. How’s this: Q: What do Penguins sing on a birthday?
A: Freeze a jolly good fellow.
Or this. A penguin walks into a bar. He says to the bartender “Have you seen my father?” The bartender says “I’m not sure, what does he look like?” (Rim shot)
Commencing with the (slight) smile cracking.