It’s not yet mid winter, not even the shortest day, and we’ve many long cold nights to endure before the first snowdrops of Spring start flowering, but this Cormorant doesn’t seem to know that.

Though their breeding season can vary from year to year, it usually runs from March through to September, but this Cormorant doesn’t seem to know that either.

Here it is, with its impressive shaggy white mane and fluffs of white feathers on its flanks, in full breeding plumage, sitting on the River Ely in south Wales, in mid December, ready for the breeding season to begin, waiting, waiting….