Cormorants

[wakina]

We had lots of Robins all winter long and our local pair of Bald Eagles stayed all winter also, regular Black Birds and Red Wing Black Birds are back in large numbers also but I have not seen the Cormorants in and around our local reservoir this spring, we have a large number of Gulls but no Cormorants. I have not seen the large flights of them heading north this year either. Actually I have only seen one flight of Cormorants this spring and that flight was made up of less than 50 birds. Just wondering if any of you have seen them in large numbers so far this year.

I hope they all choked over the winter but I am not holding my breath on that thought.

[BtweenShots]

I walked the dog today on the dyke wall at Metzger's and I did not see any on the lake nor any in the marsh area either.
Maybe a good sign

Gene

[Jawbreaker]

Hopefully they've moved to lake Ontario.

[rubycat16]

There is a really good UTUBE video of Wisconsin DNR doing a perch survey. They discuss at length the impact comorant have on perch population. They state that these birds each eat about a pound of perch per day! They go on further to discuss controlling thier reproduction by spaying oil on the eggs in nesting areas thus starving the embryo. They claim it is very effective in controlling the comorant population.

[Jawbreaker]

There is a really good UTUBE video of Wisconsin DNR doing a perch survey. They discuss at length the impact comorant have on perch population. They state that these birds each eat about a pound of perch per day! They go on further to discuss controlling thier reproduction by spaying oil on the eggs in nesting areas thus starving the embryo. They claim it is very effective in controlling the comorant population.

Can't remember if I saw it in a show or read an article, but they said they tagged young Smallmouth on Erie to see how the birds affected them. They found thousands of the tags under nests on, I believe, West Sister. Also, the Indiana DNR recommends putting oil on resident goose eggs to control them also.

[OHIO_DUCKER2000]

If they did let hunters cull them........what would they do with all the carcasses that would wash up on the beaches................LOL

[West Basin]

The Lake Erie Western Basin Cormorant population was culled back 15 or so years, I don't remember the year. If I recall correctly the Feds brought in sharpshooters (shooters) and they eliminated thousands of them, a lot around Wests Sister Island and a few other places. There was a vary noticeable decrease the following spring and summer. The year before the Lake was practically polluted with them. Yes, all the damage to uninhabited islands out away from the human activities. And they do eat a lot of fish. But they were almost scarce the next year. I figured it would only be a matter of time before they became a population nuisance again. I started noticing larger flocks / numbers of them a few years ago. Perhaps it will soon be time for another cull. I always thought one way to cull them when necessary would be to let the fall waterfowl hunters shoot a few. Might give a slow day some action and help keep the population in check. But that has it's own issues.

[Peleewalleyeguy]

About five or so years ago they killed about 10,000 of them using .22 short sub sonic rounds. I heard this from a guy who was involved with the plan. It was allowed by some agency of the government. They picked them up and disposed of the birds in some landfill. I do not know what happened after that but they are really bad animals. They are all around Florida and come up to a fishing boat waiting to eat any small fish you release. Last year there were two of them hanging around our chartered boat and they must have eaten at least 10 smaller sea trout in an hour.

[bahabear112]

I was driving to Youngstown last Sunday on IR 76. As I passed Meander reservoir I saw the black plague (cormorants) perched on old road pilings out in the lake. Looked like hundreds of them. There like mosquitoes. Worthless.

[chumthrower]

They eat everything that swims and have a serious impact on the lake. Their crap is toxic. Look what they did to Middle Island. It's practically defoliated. Motor up close to it and get a whiff. It stinks! When we were kids we'd run all over that island and goof around in the old lodge. I wouldn't step foot on the place without a haz-mat suit. Nothing a scoped .22 and a few thousand shells wouldn't fix!