Great Cormorant Mugs

Elizabeth, Lady Gwillim (née Symonds) (1763 – 1807) was an English artist and naturalist. While in India, from 1801 to 1807 she painted about 200 Indian birds. Unlike Audubon, Gwillim painted live birds, resulting in more natural poses.

Colourful animal illustration of a great cormorant. The great or black cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a widespread species of seabird. These birds are commonly seen in the pose that I have drawn here, with their huge wings spread out to show off their beautiful feathers and soak up the sun. This particular bird is drawn from a photograph I took at a local park. Drawn by hand in ink using a stippling or dot work technique. I then added colour to the drawing using alcohol markers.

Black and white animal illustration of a great cormorant. The great or black cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a widespread species of seabird. These birds are commonly seen in the pose that I have drawn here, with their huge wings spread out to show off their beautiful feathers and soak up the sun. This particular bird is drawn from a photograph I took at a local park. Drawn by hand in ink using a stippling or dot work technique.

The cormorant is a symbol of wisdom and grace, which embodies the incredible beauty and grandeur of nature. One of the most amazing features of cormorants is their ability to rise high into the air and soar at great heights. They are masters of free flight, with which they fascinate everyone who has the good fortune to see this incredible spectacle.

Black and white animal illustration of a great cormorant. The great or black cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a widespread species of seabird. These birds are commonly seen in the pose that I have drawn here, with their huge wings spread out to show off their beautiful feathers and soak up the sun. This particular bird is drawn from a photograph I took at a local park. Drawn by hand in ink using a stippling or dot work technique.

A couple of Cormorants sunbathe on the rocks off the Torquay coast.

Cormorant On The Rocks ©Debra Martz A lone juvenile double-crested Cormorant sat quietly and watched the others depart. Captured this image at the Great Salt Plains state park in northern Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved In My Gallery/Collection: Feathered Friends 3 20220401-DSC_1145.NEF

Opinions are voiced - Great Egret

A great blue heron on the lake at Circle B Bar Reserve

Large Gathering of Cormorants by Debra Martz After I made my way all the way to the top steps of the spillway and looked beyond toward the dam, I was quite surprised by this Gulp of Double-breasted Cormorants! Yes, I knew this was part of their fall migration but I had not seen them gathered on the edge of the dam like this previously. A group of cormorants has many collective nouns, including a "gulp", "flight", "rookery", "sunning", and "swim" of cormorants. Captured at The Great Salt Plains Lake in northern Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved In My Gallery/Collection: "Feathered Friends 2" 20211101-DSC_8186

Disorderly Conduct by Debra Martz Sort of looks like a chaotic mess of birds with no rhyme nor reason as to their movements. Some leaving by air, while some were landing and others moving across the water in all directions. All I know is that there were large numbers of Double-crested Cormorants and Ring-billed Gulls on the move during fall migration. There could be some other Gulls in this mix as I had seen Franklin and Herring Gulls earlier. Captured at the Great Salt Plains Lake in northern Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved In My Gallery/Collection: "Feathered Friends 2" 20211101-DSC_8219.NEF

I found it rather odd to see this Double-crested Cormorant drying its wings while in the flowing water over the spillway. More commonly, this would be done on a rock, dock, shoreline or such. But this one seemed perfectly content in this location for wing drying. High winds churn up the dirts of the shallow lake bottom and even brought some heavy streaking flowing over from the upper tier of the spillway. Great Salt Plains State Park in Northern Oklahoma. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved In My Gallery/Collection: "Feathered Friends 2" 20210622-DSC_3863

Splash of a Landing by Debra Martz It is fun to watch Cormorants land and take off from water. They always make several splashes when landing and even more on take-off as they sort of get a running start. This was on take-off which I thought was cool with the circular splash made by this Double-crested Cormorant. Captured at the spillway of the Great Salt Plains Lake in northern Oklahoma. For enhancement, I added a vignette and some digital film grain. ©Debra Martz, All Rights Reserved In My Gallery/Collections: "Feathered Friends 3" "Digital Art Photography" 20211202-DSC_9804