Cormorant, not Shag

We took a gentle wander along the beach towards Dunrobin Castle this evening in low-angled sunlight, the warmth of the day spoiled by a stiff northwesterly wind but my pleasure in the evening was further marred by....

.....this bird. There is absolutely no doubt at all that it's a cormorant, not a shag, the give-away being the distinctive white patch on the side of its wing, something which is much more marked when they're in their breeding plumage.

Cormorants are also far more likely to dry their wing feathers by stretching them out - and the ones along here do a lot of drying!

While it's possible that some of the birds along the coast are shags, it's far more likely that my efforts to distinguish the two species in their winter plumage and, in particular, my using juvenile birds, has led me astray. Oh dear!