I was worried that the reason why the water level on the River Afon was so low was owing to the long hot summer which had drained the river of water.   I was quite wrong.   It is owing to the height of the tide at this time of year, which produces a low and correspondingly high tide, such that this morning the river had become a lake:-

By the way, not being a bird expert, I assume that the bird is an elderly cormorant, but am happy to be corrected.