Cormorants...

[ditchcrawler]

Its not a new thing, in Norfolk they were used for Keepers Pie to give to the beaters on shoot days. I have no idea if that is documented anywhere.

[Athy]

22 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Its not a new thing, in Norfolk they were used for Keepers Pie to give to the beaters on shoot days. I have no idea if that is documented anywhere.

It is now!

[David Mack]

23 hours ago, IanD said:

Nope, shags are different

 

 

Not according to Christopher Isherwood

 

The Common Cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag.
The reason you will see no doubt
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

[Kudzucraft]

I hope you don't get them in large numbers!  I live on a large river and thousands of cormorants have moved in. I don't know about fish damage but they roost in large numbers. Poo in large volumes and the ammonia is so strong you don't want to get near the Island.  It also decimates all the plant life under them. Once the trees die they move to a new spot and start all over again.

 

We have an are locally called 'The Islands', as the name implies it is a string of several islands, from small to a 3 or 4 acres. They have roosted there starting on the smaller islands. Decimated those, erosion without the greenery started and a couple of small islands were lost.  The larger islands suffered badly but they moved to the other ends and started it all over.

[Captain Pegg]

I was quite surprised to see a cormorant on the Tring summit this week.

 

 

[Marbling]

On 12/02/2021 at 16:06, Jen-in-Wellies said:

They always look very low in the water. Failed automatic bilge pump no doubt.

That's because their buoyancy has to be delicately balanced in order for them to dive efficiently and fresh water is less dense than salt, so they always look like they are struggling a bit. Sorry to be both late and pedantic, but it’s one factoid I always remember about them!

[tree monkey]

11 hours ago, Marbling said:

That's because their buoyancy has to be delicately balanced in order for them to dive efficiently and fresh water is less dense than salt, so they always look like they are struggling a bit. Sorry to be both late and pedantic, but it’s one factoid I always remember about them!

Excellent bit of trivia 

16 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

I was quite surprised to see a cormorant on the Tring summit this week.

 

 

Used to see them fairly regularly when BSP was on the GU

[Bee]

Saw one recently  perched on a wire, didn't think they could do that with those big webbed feet.