Cormorants on the Clyde

I was out walking the other day and spotted three Cormorants on the banks of the River Clyde, but way upstream in the very heart of Glasgow close to the Polmadie footbridge.

Now I found this very encouraging because these birds are experts at catching fish which they pursue underwater like penguins by swimming after their prey, and they are lovely to watch as they fly low over the surface of their favourite hunting grounds.

So the River Clyde must be getting cleaner by the day to attract Cormorants in such numbers and the ones I saw were sitting on the riverbank drying their feathers which was a wonderful sight.

In parts of Japan and Vietnam local people train Cormorants to fish for them which is an even more amazing sight although I can't see this catching on in Glasgow and, in any event, I imagine it's against some by-law or other.  

Teach a Man to Fish (06/07/14)

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.

Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime."

Teach a bird to fish on a man's behalf and you have yourself a nice little business.

As in these amazing photographs from The Independent, where a cormorant master or 'Usho' trains the birds to capture sweetfish or 'ayu' on the River Nagara in Japan.

The 'Usho' doing his stuff here is Mr Masahiko Sugiyama, but whoever dreamed up the whole idea in the first place must have been really clever if you ask me.