Cooperation

I witnessed something truly memorable a few days ago that I suspect few people have seen.

One July 4th at dawn, my wife and I were heading out to fish just north of the Thomas Johnson bridge when we suddenly found ourselves in a pod of dophin.  They were breaking all around us in pairs as we went under the bridge and headed for the mouth of the Patuxent.  It was one of the neatest things I have personally seen in the animal kingdom.  I believe the same pod visits the Bay every summer as there are reports every year of a pod being sighted.

In the same way, the other day, I saw a flock of cormorants traveling up river.  Instead of being submerged and leaping into the air, they were on the surface and diving below the water.  They were cooperating in herding a school of fish ahead of them and feeding on them as they traveled up river. 
In the photo the birds marked "A" are eating fish.  The bird marked "B" is just diving underwater.  The birds marked "C" have just resurfaced after being underwater.  The remainder are catching their breath in preparation for another dive.  The ones that dive under would come up ahead of the flock as the new leader.

They drove the fish all the way across the bay to my right.  It wasn't until they had finished that I could tell how many there were.  There were roughly twenty-five, but as they were actively fishing, I would only see eight to ten on the surface at any one time.

I have seen one or two cormorants fishing together.  I have also seen flocks of cormorants resting on the water together.  But, I have never seen them fishing cooperatively.  It is something I feel fortunate to have witnessed.

I have made the picture a little bigger than normal. Remember, if you click on the picture, it will come up full screen so you can see it more closely.

Post Update

It turns out there is such a thing as a fog bow.  If you "google" the term, Wikipedia has an article about it. There is also a link on that page to other images of fog bows.  Who knew...