Country diary: Nothing more than a cormorant - and that's fine by me | Sara Hudston

West Bay, Dorset: What makes a healthy nature interaction? With 'Reggie' the dolphin just down the road, a moment with a hungry seabird makes me wonderWest Bay harbourside at the end of the school holidays seethes with visitors enjoying a last lick of summer. Families cluster around the food kiosks, buying ice-cream, chips and churros, or peer over the harbour edge at boats bobbing on the rising tide."Look at that great big bird!" A woman points at a cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), which has surfaced in the water immediately below. It's the size of a goose, but dark-feathered, sitting upright in the water, propped up by its fanned-out tail, its long neck stretched skywards. In the middle of its throat there is a prominent, wriggling bulge - it has caught a fish. Continue reading...