There is an extremely pale Double-crested Cormorant at Whitby Harbour, which Carol Edwards and I found last Saturday afternoon. Carol got some excellent digital photos of the bird, who was perched quite close to the foot of the jetty at the base of the channel.
This is at the foot of Brock Street, Whitby, south of the baseline road, where Brock Street curves to the southeast and becomes Water Street. There is a cluster of rocks nearby in the channel (to the right as you stand facing the lake...or if you find the road sign that has both Brock Street and Water Street on it, just face west and you'll see the rocks, just offshore past the point), that are covered with guano. And on them was a small flock of Double-crested Cormorants, some Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls and one Great Black-backed Gull. The bird in question has an entirely yellow beak and pouch...not orange. The feet are not black...more of a mauve-grey colour. The face, neck and breast are clean, pure white. The top of the head down the back of the neck is a light sort of greyish-brownish colour. The back and wings are pale brownish, lightest toward the front, darker toward the rear, but nowhere the same colour as the normal birds. The flanks are pale sandy brown and the pattern seems to curve under the belly, as well. Tail and primaries and scondaries are pale, sandy brown. Brock Street is the main north-south street through Whitby, and its south end is south of Bayly (baseline) road, which runs east and west, parallel to Highway 401, south of Whitby. This is Brock Street, just east of Cranberry Marsh, not Brock Road. Barry Kent MacKay Markham, Ontario, Canada
