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ANOTHER LIFE:THE CORMORANT MIGHT have been made for November – that gothic black sílhouette, the wings like a broken umbrella hung out to dry. They’re spread because the bird lacks waterproofing, the faster to dive after fish. Most anglers hate cormorants especially in autumn, when half of Ireland’s birds move inland to feed on freshwater coarse fish such as roach and perch.

And cormorants are regularly bracketed with grey seals as over-conserved predators needing “management”. The chief executive of the South Western Regional Fisheries Board was reported recently as suggesting that, if matters were left to nature, seals and birds would eat out the salmon and eels and die themselves after ending their food supply.