Valentines Park: Herons and Cormorants

I can't leave Valentines Park without mentioning the return of a Heron and Cormorant to the Boating Lake. Over the last few weeks a Heron has been frequenting the island on which the Swans nested:


One would like to think that he was one of the adults who nested on the Fish Pond island- but who knows?

After fishing in his usual upright manner, he surprized me by trying out a new technique: lying low on the ground- in the hopes the fish would not see him?



Two cormorants have also frequented the lake. Here one of them joins the Heron on the island:



And here he joins the Swan family:


Now he goes fishing in the water...


And now he returns to the bank...


And now he spreads his wings to dry them in the sunshine...


Apart from this, the Cormorant is a regular sight on the boats:


I will conclude with a pretty hybrid (?) Goose I saw on the lake's bank: