Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year – I’m a finalist for the 4th time, with one of the saddest scenes I’ve ever photographed.
1/1600, f/4.0, ISO 1000
Canon R5, Canon RF 600 f/4 L IS USM
This poignant moment between a juvenile Little Pied Cormorant and its parent is in the Human Impact section. The caption states: “This juvenile cormorant cradled its parent with a wing, as it desperately tried to release the life-threatening entanglement. The image shows the potential harm from discarded fishing line while also revealing the poignant, anthropomorphic connection between birds. Despite concerted efforts from specialist marine wildlife rescuers, the cormorant sadly evaded capture.”
Although cormorants can often have brown staining, from iron compounds in the water, it doesn’t usually get this bad. The adult cormorant would have been unable to preen, or feed, properly once it became entangled. I am very grateful to everyone who tried to locate and rescue this bird.
Juvenile Little Pied Cormorants have paler caps than adults and their gular pouches are pink.
I was at Cranbourne Botanic Gardens today and had intended to share some photographs from today’s shoot (my apologies to the volunteers I met, I’ll share the grebes soon) but the first email I read when I got home told me that the list of finalists had been made public today. The photographs in the AGNPOTY gallery are brilliant, I highly recommend visiting the site: https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/c/npoty/gallery
Happy birding, Kim
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Very sad situation, but a great shot!
Thank you Marj, I hope that it helps to raise awareness
Congratulations and good luck.
Thanks heaps Wendy. I hope you had a good trip to Cairns.
Congratulations Kim. Great but sad photo. Valda
Many thanks Valda, I hope so much that it helps to raise awareness.
Congratulations Kim, well deserved finalist. You have captured a moment of beauty and tragedy. What heartache humans cause.
It really highlights the family connection doesn’t it, which is an aspect of animal behaviour that I wish was much more widely understood.
Congratulations – painfully beautiful capture
Oh, yes, that describes it perfectly.
Oh. Huge congratulations. And grief. And rage.
You have a gift with words EC.
Congratulations Kim!
Hopefully your efforts to save this bird will be rewarded
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Well captured
Many thanks Lee-Anne. I hope some awareness comes from the suffering
Huge congratulations!! Such an amazing and well deserved achievement, super proud of my Ma!
Thanks heaps Liss! And thanks for getting me to the opening of my first AGNPOTY finalist shot a few years ago. I don’t think this photograph will be the main feature though!
How can such a confronting picture be beautiful? You capture so much in this photo, Kim. Good luck!
It shows so much doesn’t it Liz… the horror of entanglement and the beauty of the family bond. I wish we’d been able to help it, I can only hope that the image helps more people understand both aspects of the scene.