You mentioned Cormorants, about Mid October I was sitting at the green can off of Catawba State Park Launched and I watched what I swear had to be thousands of cormorants flying east in huge flocks about 2 to 3 feet above the water. They kept coming flock after flock all day all heading eastward. Where did all those cormorants come from, there were thousands, these guys can decimate fish species, maybe all those cormorants are part of the decline there sure were a lot of them, never saw that many in my 70 year lifetime on lake Erie!