Double-Crested Cormorants seem to be enjoying the summer here with fewer boats to disturb their fishing and sunbathing. Many despise these birds due to their fondness for defecating on manmade objects and their competition with fishermen.
Nonetheless, they are perhaps our most skilled fishing bird. They can dive deeply, stay down long, use their crackling blue eyes to pierce the murkiness, and pump their powerful legs simultaneously to obtain significant underwater propulsion.
However, Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) are not good fliers compared to other feathered fishermen, especially air divers (e.g., kingfishers, ospreys, eagles). And, they seem to take forever to take off from the water. That, according to the literature, seems to be due to the fact that the primary feathers of Cormorants are morphically adapted to absorb water and repel air bubbles when the birds dive. This reduces their buoyancy under water, which gives them a great advantage as a below-water hunter. Those soaked wings are why Cormorants spend a lot of their spare time preening and holding their wings out to get a blow-dry. (Brooklin, Maine)