Where's the camera?

Sometimes things happen much too quickly to capture with the camera. This morning I was drinking my coffee, and leaning on the kitchen sink, staring off into the west. It was a morning that reminded us that fall is almost here- grey and overcast, with fast moving clouds scudding across the sky.

As I was thinking that my swimming days are probably over, I noticed a long, slender, black pointed object rising from the water just outside the window. "What the heck is that", I wondered aloud.

Tom came over to look too, and as we watched, a head and body emerged from the waves, and we realized that we were watching a cormorant who had been fishing underwater and had come up for air. As we watched, the bird dove again, and this time came up with a rather large perch held crosswise in that long, pointy beak. He expertly turned the fish and gulped it down, and we were amazed that he had been able to swallow such a large fish whole!