This will hurt me...

A shag on a rock. Flowerpot Point, Blackman's Bay. June 2013. The Gift Of Stones , Jim Crace: A tale set as a small village of tool makers in the Stone Age is pushed aside by the emergent Bronze Age. Crace has created an evocative tale of the impact of change on ordinary people through the eyes of a couple of beautifully constructed characters. Lovely stuff. B+ .

Cormorant drying its wings. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. May 2013. Poems drawn from notes on a fridge? Whatever next! This is Just to Say , William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

WATCH OUT! Underneath the Tasman Bridge, as seen from the western shore on the north side. November 2011. Watery Wednesday , and I very nearly captured a tragedy here. I can neither confirm or deny whether or not this intrepid crew of marine security services foiled a plot devised by a ruthless cabal of shags - on the rock broken pylon in the centre of the picture - to blow up the Tasman Bridge and sever connection between Hobart's eastern and western shores.

Shags on a rock at Hinsby Beach. May 2010. These fellows are the dreaded Black-faced Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax fuscescens ), also known as the Black-faced Shag . As you can see, it is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. Noticeably, its upperparts , including facial skin and bill, are black, with white underpants . It is endemic to coastal regions of southern Australia, and feeds largely on small coastal fish is prone to feasting of the brains of pirates. Really. Shag, shag, shag, shag, shag, shag and shag. May 2010.