The Shags are doing well on our monitoring plots here at St Abb’s Head with plenty of chicks hatching out.  In the first photo is a very young chick which the adult is keeping well protected under its wing.  In the second picture are two chicks, a slightly older chick, whose head is peeking out from under the adult’s wing, and a young chick, of which only the rear end is visible.  The young chick looks a little bit like a black, plucked chicken, as it hasn’t yet grown any of the chocolate brown down which its older sibling is sporting.  Lizy.

Small shag chick (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)

Small and larger shag chicks (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)