Cormorants!

Blackwater

Blackwater

Twelve Pointer
Was just outside filling my bird feeder when I spotted a perfect wedge of 17 geese approaching from the SE at about 400'. They weren't talking to each other like geese normally do and as they got closer I saw why; they weren't geese at all, but cormorants. When they got right in front of the house the leader wheeled them to the left, the wedge broke up as they flew a counter-clockwise full 360 degree circle and began reforming the wedge as they continued off in their original direction, this time with a new leader. Never saw a wedge of any kind go to so much trouble to change leaders, normally they just do a shuffle without changing direction.

What a time to be without a camera handy.
 
Part-time hunter

Part-time hunter

Ten Pointer
I don't like them either. There were a dozen or more of them that got into a pond behind my neighborhood and they pretty much decimated the fish population.
 
CountryRN

CountryRN

Twelve Pointer
turkeyfoot said:
So y'all go to educate mtn person can't say I got much experience with em why the hatred
Click to expand...
They are an invasive species that will eat their weight in fish or more each day. As said earlier they will kill a fish population.
South Carolina opened a control season on them.
 
Soilman

Soilman

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I see multiple flocks of them nearly every morning when I cross the Neuse River bridge headed to work.
 
bshobbs

bshobbs

Old Mossy Horns
Some fish farms have dogs to chase them off. Others put netting over the ponds to help deter them.

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darkthirty

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
They will also take over heron rookeries and use the nests and run the herons off. I can show you some small islands on lakes i sturgeon fish that were green and beautiful 10 years ago. Cormorants moves in and now the islands are void of anything living and all the trees are dying or dead. Used to be a beautiful lil island where herons nested and raised. Now there’s 800-1000 cormorants that perch in the trees and :donk:donk:donk:donk up the whole island. That’s what killed all the plants and trees. You can smell it when u drive by in the boat.
 
Blackwater

Blackwater

Twelve Pointer
My wife and I were staying at a property down in Kissimmee, FL a few years ago which had a 4-5 acre pond and I sat and watched a cormorant and an egret work together to catch small fish. The cormorant would drive the small fish toward the shore where the egret waited, he'd make a stab and spook the fish back out to the cormorant and they'd do this over and over as they made their way around the lake. After over an hour or more of this they had made their way more than half way around the lake.

I doubt this was a one off, no doubt they did this all the time.
 

FITZH2O

Old Mossy Horns
CountryRN said:
They are an invasive species that will eat their weight in fish or more each day. As said earlier they will kill a fish population.
South Carolina opened a control season on them.
Click to expand...

I hate them basterds too... but was unaware that they were invasive
 
Crappie_Hunter

Crappie_Hunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Fishing on Santee one time I saw a pontoon with shooters in 2 captains chairs at the front. The driver would flush up a group of cormorants and the killing would start.... It was a glorious sight to behold. When they rode by me I almost stood up and removed my hat as a sign of respect.
 

GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
If you can find a roost in a tree overhanging the water that is a great place to fish for catfish. Their bodies only process part of the fish and most of the dead fish pass through them.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
Heck I remember when Leech Lake in Minnesota had to hire sharpshooters to shoot their nests out. It wasn't something they could have "hunters" do because its a pretty populated lake.
 
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