Hi all,

12:50-1:15pm
  Since the weather was better than yesterday, I decided to venture down to Violettes'
Lock and have a go at the Neotropical Cormorant that has been previously reported in
the area.  As I walked to the canal, I saw bird club members Lydia S. and Linda F. We chatted
briefly, they didn't see anything up river from Violettes', so with scope flung over shoulder, we
walked down river from mm 23 along the canal to the tall wall of rocks that juts out into the canal.
We scanned the river, there were several Double crested together on a log in the middle of the river.
Two other cormorants  were spotted on a log in the middle slightly upstream. One looked promising, in my description:
(the Nat.Geo guide doesn't give a full length drawing of a imm Neo.) I looked a Bill Hubick's photo of one and the size was just like that- thinner bill, smaller head, lighter overall build, longer tail/structure, -when the sun came out, this cormorant showed to be browner, and didn't have the whitish that the imm DC cormorant has. The feet, what could be seen of them, smaller as well.
I used to take cormorants for granted-not anymore!  

D.Ford/Bethesda, Md