Witness Statement

As I watched, like a lion with its prey the wave growled and snarled while crouching, preparing to pounce. Rushing up the sloping shingle beach, it reached out and dragged pebbles down into its lair. I heard the rasping raking of the beach tumbling pell-mell and headlong into the sea and saw stones spewed out as leftovers in the next cold wave of grey water, breaking in trails of white foam along the coastline. I watched the wind-blown spray and the black clouds over grey water threatening and evil; a wave rose, a hooded cobra striking the rocks of the breakwater before devouring them. I listened to the plaintive cries of a young herring gull high above the sea, blown sideways by the gale. But full twenty feet from the shore the black-clad cormorant sat securely smug on a post, the predator’s perch. A swift, triumphant swoop filled his beak with supper and I watched as he flew away.