Country diary 1917: nectar sipping hawk-moths

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 28 September 1917Though the Food Controller may consider that the supply of fresh-water fish is not of great importance, the cormorants evidently hold a different opinion. There were two busily sampling what they could catch on one of the Delamere meres; they thought a big, lazy bream well worth diving for. Was it this idea which attracted a passing shag - the smaller and much rarer green cormorant - to see what it could find on the canal near Mossley? Probably it was either lost or fagged out when migrating, for it allowed itself to be caught, and when I last heard of it, three days ago, was thriving well in captivity. The big cormorant often wanders inland for a little fishing, but the shag is seldom met with far from the sea. Continue reading...