Can anyone identify this bird?

Lucky Sniper

Well-Known Member
lake01.jpg


I am finding some rather large fish , mainly carp at the side of a lake that is on my perm. The farmer is going mad. I thought it might be mink (or worse otter). I thought I had found some mink poo but found this on the game camera this morning. Is it a cormorant?
 
Heron it is then. Automatically thought cormorant. The fish are rather large so I guess I will set the camera again.
 
The fish pretty much have been fully eaten apart from head so in my limited experience in this area I guess it is mink. Or could I be wrong?
 
The heron will generally swallow it food whole so the heron could be finishing off what's left from what been taking the fish????
 
I would guess an otter is the problem, they're a lot more common than people think, mate who has a trout pond is absolutely plagued by them.
 
The carp are large, so 20lb plus ?
If they are that size it is an Otter, a heron may stab the odd big carp by mistake, but in general eats the smaller stuff, same goes for Cormorants.
A mink can deal with a fish of maybe 5 or 6 pounds, past that size and happening regularly it's an Otter every time.
Not much you can do about it, except Otter proof fences all thew way round, not a cheap proposition, not sure if help funding the fence is still available or not.

Neil. :)
 
Set a couple of mink traps with bits of the dead fish in see what you get fix the traps down will had a large family of mink taking trout up to 5/6 pound twice a day
DJC
 
Mink or otter are the culprits for pulling fish up the bank. are the fish's gills and surrounding area ripped out? What size fish?
 
The carp are large, so 20lb plus ?
If they are that size it is an Otter, a heron may stab the odd big carp by mistake, but in general eats the smaller stuff, same goes for Cormorants.
A mink can deal with a fish of maybe 5 or 6 pounds, past that size and happening regularly it's an Otter every time.
Not much you can do about it, except Otter proof fences all thew way round, not a cheap proposition, not sure if help funding the fence is still available or not.

Neil. :)

20+ pound carp, could be an alligator !

Picture is a heron as said only take small fish, cormorant will take a but bigger but only what they can swallow whole. Not much experience with otters though
Wingy
 
At redmire we have lost fish into double figures to mink (very unusual tho) and fish over 23lb to otters. It's gut wrenching seeing the damage they do.
 
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