| The other day, I walked over to the bridge that connects Ocean Twp. and Asbury Park, on Sunset Ave. It's about a mile, so I always hope that I'm going to find some birds on the water. At first, I was disappointed, but then I noticed a black speck on the water. Could that be a cormorant?
Quite soon, it started to lift its wings out of the water as though to dry them in preparation for emerging from the water.
A couple of ducks hove into view to provide and escort; perhaps the cormorant was encroaching into restricted water space!
Suddenly, I realized that a second cormorant was getting in on the act. It had snuck up on our friend. By the way, the water hasn't changed color; it's the reflections you're seeing as the birds approached the bank.
This is a few days later. In sharp contrast to the previous visit, the place was overrun with cormorants. There are six in this picture and there were more further along the bank and out on the poles.
And here are a couple perched on the poles. The poles are sufficiently far apart that it's just about impossible with my camera to get both birds properly in focus.
At first glance, it looks as though this one is also sunning its wings, but it isn't it's flapping its wings like crazy trying to achieve balance on top of this oddly shaped pole.
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Yes, indeed, it could. And, it was making its way in my direction. So, I decided to track its progress in the hope of getting better pictures as it came closer.
The closer it came, the more it aired its wings.
Once the ducks had moved on, the cormorant went back to spreading its wings.
They reached the bank, turned around and contemplated where they'd just come from. Meanwhile, I little black bird with a white beak (what is it?) crept behind them.
Here's a closer look at two on the bank. I wasn't able to get very close to the birds because they were on private land. I was taking these shots from the bridge.
Here's a closer look at the one sunning its wings.
Well, that's enough cormorant pictures for now. It was while I was on my way back from this second visit that I encountered the Blue Jay that's featured in volume 1. 
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