Cormorant watching

[Waterman]

I stood on Richmomd bridge yesterday watching the river go by when up popped one of those infamous black birds with an eel that I gestimated to be a little under a pound. He had the thing by the middle and I was thinking how on earth is he going to get that down when he flipped the thing round with the greatest of ease and swallowed it head first like a child eats a string of spaghetti! He then hopped out onto a boat looking pleased with himself and with a bulge in his kneck the size of a football.

To be fair though, he probably won't need another meal like that for at least half an hour

[Leon Roskilly]

I once watched one trying to swallow a sizeable flounder.

 

The flounder seemed to lodge halfway down its throat.

 

It took about 20 minutes to complete the swallowing.

 

One of the most hilarious sights I've ever seen

 

Tight Lines - leon

[chesters1]

i once watched from my bedroom window a heron chasing a rat in the middle of a marshy field,it was very funny as the heron isnt the most gainly bird on its feet ,the chase went hither and thither for about 5 mins with the rat and heron in close combat with the rat jumping up and down, in the end it was the heron that won ,till then i didnt realise they ate them

[Jem]

These things need culling,they are decimating the fisheries,ruining our sport,at the rate they are multiplying we will have nothing to fish for.

I have personally seen a cormorant swallow a 2lb roach on a local fishery,my heart sank when i saw it.The fish must have been over 10yrs old.

So i say shoot them all.

 

Jem

[Waterman]

I don't think anything hurts more than finding one of your prized koi as stiff as a board on the lawn simply because he was too big for the heron to fly off with :mad:

[davidP]

Yup -'Big Mama' went that way last summer, but not before she spent 2 days back in the pool never quite recovering after the wife found her gasping her last on the lawn. In the end I had to knock her on the head which upset me greatly

[Hereford_angler]

My dads favourite koi called ghost got sum diesease last year and he was advised to kill it befor it spread to the rest. He couldnt do it and soon 2 other smaler carp had it. The 3 stopped eating and died. will he never learn to take experts advice. Never listened to me when i told him a tench float wont be eny good on the river!

[Waterman]

davidP:

Yup -'Big Mama' went that way last summer, but not before she spent 2 days back in the pool never quite recovering after the wife found her gasping her last on the lawn. In the end I had to knock her on the head which upset me greatly

That's so cruel, especially as she was the one who discovered the fish in the first place

[davidP]

Thart made I larf

[chevin]

Originally posted by Jem:

[QB]These things need culling,they are decimating the fisheries,ruining our sport,at the rate they are multiplying we will have nothing to fish for.

 

This is a problem that should be addressed with a few 12 bore shot guns! I can't believe the environmentalists not understanding that the survival of too many cormorants sounds the death knell for a number of species of fish. I was born in a place called Hartlepool and I lived there until I was about 14 (1955). I was fascinated by any wild life whether it walked, flew or swam. I read every Romany book I could get hold of, and any other similar type of book too. I knew where to look for the nests of birds, the birds them selves and the food they ate. In that time of extreme interest, I saw one cormorant at Hartlepool. In 1972, I called in at the place after the speed trials at Elvington(?) had been cancelled. I got down to the sea front and what did I see? Cormorants! Hundreds of the bloody things, they were perched on anything that could be perched on, all of them drying their wings. I looked at them all and thought, "Christ, what can all of them be eating?" At that time they hadn't started becoming a problem on inland waters, but by what I hear, they certainly have now. Can't the environmentalists understand that when they have wiped out the available food, the dammed things will die anyway? Better shoot them now and preserve the fish they are going to eat. They are sea birds anyway, they shouldn't be on fresh waters, and it should be obvious to all that they are there because their main diet in the ocean has been reduced to such an extent they need to move there. From the numbers I saw in 1972, I would say that the cormorants themselves could have a lot to do with the depletion of their ocean diet.