Bellyflopping Birds!

 Above, a nest with chicklets of some sort in it: below, an adult. Commorants of some kind? If you know, please inform in a comment.

Over the last week or so, as the afternoons wane, we start paddling closer to the shores and looking for the "belly flopping birds"! It is a most unusual spectacle. As we pass under the trees, birds just hurl themselves most ungraciously into the water, making huge splashes. It looks most uncomfortable. They don't seem to be fishing... If we sit quietly and wait, they poke their heads from the water, look around and go back under. It also doesn't make sense that they are only hiding as why would they draw attention with such loud water entrances?

Then we noted that in every case, there is a nest above with chicks in it. Large white fuzzy chicks. Interesting and quite a spectacle. If you know what birds these are, please let us know. The adults are white and black with long necks... cormorant-like.