April Gossip, Fishing, and A Couple of Surprises

 Every year around the beginning of April, I notice a large number of birds  hanging out on these large power lines that cross the Puyallup River.

I didn't know exactly what kind of birds they were but I figured that they were probably there to go fishing.  Although, passing  by them at 55 miles an hour, I'd never seen them do anything but sit there looking like awkward teenagers at their first dance. 

 

After spending a Saturday with Alison, I had occasion to see these birds again, had my camera, and didn't have anywhere that I needed to be for a while so I stopped, got out of my car and decided to hang out with the cormorants for a while.

 

 Part of the flight of cormorants.  Do you suppose they're gossiping?

"Don't look now but I think that's Bob on the branch below us."

"If you ask me, he's always been beneath us!"

"Oh Muriel, you're terrible!"   

 "I said, DON'T look now!  Geeze, now he's looking back at us and we'll have to think of something to say besides, "care for an Altoid, your breath smells fishy." (A compliment if you think about it.)
"Well hellooo Bob, it's so very good to see you!"

For heaven's sake Bob,  just because we said hello, doesn't mean that you have to come up here!  "Muriel, don't leave me here alone with Bob or I won't speak to you for a month!"

This trio seems to be enjoying a tennis match.

"So then I said to that waitress, 'I've never been so insulted in my life' and stormed right out of that place without leaving a tip!  That'll show her for insinuating that my nose is too large for my face!"

"Anne and Jerome have just begun talking about splitting up and in swoops Arthur. Can you believe it?  The smell of desperation on that guy is enough to scare anyone away!"

There's something to be said for getting out of one's car, and watching for a while.  The cormorants were indeed there to fish.

 I didn't notice any fish in beaks but then maybe the fish were small enough to be swallowed quickly.

Mostly they seemed to do a sort of touch and go thing.  I'm imagining that their webbed feet are probably not their primary fish catching apparatus.  On the other hand, I didn't see beaks going under water.

In China, specially trained cormorants are used to catch fish. The video below shows the amazing fishing abilities of these birds. 

At least in the time I was watching, none of the underwater swimming seemed to be taking place.  Is this some sort of training session?

"I don't care what everyone else is doing Bertram!  If all of your friends jumped into the river would you jump in too?" 

Peer pressure is an amazing thing!

 

Looking up.

This had been the Saturday of the daffodil parade in Tacoma.  Some of the floats had used the road on which I'd stopped to get to the event.  Here by the side of the road was some of springs cheeriest blooms which, I imagine, had fallen from one such float.

 

 I hope that they got to be a part of the glory of the parade before meeting such an ignominious end.

 

Daffodils for us are now mostly a memory although my inherited  Narcissus poeticus or poet's daffodils, always the latest of the year, are still in full bloom.