A sinister bird arrows into the river

Teifi Marshes, Pembrokeshire Bilidowcar the cormorant's called in Welsh - Billy the Ducker

Bound for hides in the Teifi Marshes reserve, I paused to lean against railings on the riverside path and a cormorant arrowed into view, threw up its broad, webbed feet to brake, and touched down on the water.

Seeing it reminded me of a morning 20 years ago in a fishing boat careening into Roonagh in County Mayo on green combers that were the aftermath of an Easter storm. A cormorant had kept us close, wave-skimming company. I asked the skipper, Jack Heanue, what the folk of Inishturk - an English-speaking island - thought of these weirdly beautiful birds.