Where are the cormorants?

[Wingy]

Like others on here, I control cormorants on a local fishery and in 2011 & 2012 I was pestering NE mid August for the licence then by September we were inundated with the pests. To date this year not 1 cormorant has shown. I can only put it down to the mild weather. Is anyone else experiencing the same this year?
Wingy

 

[magnum]

Like others on here, I control cormorants on a local fishery and in 2011 & 2012 I was pestering NE mid August for the licence then by September we were inundated with the pests. To date this year not 1 cormorant has shown. I can only put it down to the mild weather. Is anyone else experiencing the same this year?
Wingy

had 2 on fly in last week on to our water but only 1 made it off there not seen the other 1 about !! yes its that time of year

 

[bruce w]

there are big rafts of cormorants working on sprats around the isles , they arrived last week but i think they are our home grown stock . so they must be fishing at sea

 

[tikka2506]

There seems to be a lot of these lovely birds flying up the Forth.

 

[Hornet 6]

Seen a few out in the estuary but none inland yet thankfully.

Neil.

 

[jimbo1984]

Had 3 fly onto the pond on the end of our lane the other day the haven't stopped but it's bad news as the nearest sea is over 100 mile away

 

[bruce w]

Had 3 fly onto the pond on the end of our lane the other day the haven't stopped but it's bad news as the nearest sea is over 100 mile away

Comorants can cover a lot of ground in little time they are strong fliers once they have got there wings dry ,and they fly in a direct line, if you are in Yorkshire you carnt get 100 miles from the sea, still one thing no one mentiond they are better eating than you might think ,at one time there was a market for them in Shetland

 

[jimbo1984]

Comorants can cover a lot of ground in little time they are strong fliers once they have got there wings dry ,and they fly in a direct line, if you are in Yorkshire you carnt get 100 miles from the sea, still one thing no one mentiond they are better eating than you might think ,at one time there was a market for them in Shetland

Sorry my mistake I reckon I maybe about 70 miles or so from sea , wow I never knew that they were good eating still I suppose there's a lot of things we don't eat anymore that we used to

 

[mereside]

you can have ours if you want some, i often see 40 or more on our mere bloody things I don't even think they control them here, wayne

 

[bruce w]

would they taste diffrent feeding on fresh water, off salt water they have a tuna taste

 

[LuckyEddie]

In the wake of my father's death I visited Balgavies Loch beside Forfar as this is where he taught me to fish.
I took the attached photo there and counted 18 in the tree and another 6 flying about.
The place is now a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve.



A shame really as this was a good trout/pike/perch loch.

Ed

 

[patrickt]

had 2 on fly in last week on to our water but only 1 made it off there not seen the other 1 about !! yes its that time of year

I will presume........ that the one that did not get away was taken subject to a license having been granted??

 

[Kalahari]

Either that it was old and worn out and just expired!

David.

PS. Last time I was down at the mouth of the river Clwyd I stopped counting at 70 as they were all in a line drying wings.

 

[WAYNE]

Come across to the solway, as there is plenty over here. Wish these would disappear

 

[Wingy]

I'm sure they will be here soon enough, they just seem to be late this year & NE have granted use of the 17HMR in addition to the shotgun. Itching to try it out as there will be no out of range issues this year
Wingy

 

[Whitebeard]

Like others on here, I control cormorants on a local fishery and in 2011 & 2012 I was pestering NE mid August for the licence then by September we were inundated with the pests. To date this year not 1 cormorant has shown. I can only put it down to the mild weather. Is anyone else experiencing the same this year?
Wingy

You dont have any cormorants because you dont have any fish of eatable size left mate!!
A cormorant eats about 1lb of fish a day, a local reservoir to me had 52 resident cormorants 3 years ago the amount has dropped as the fish stocks are depleted, now only the odd one drops by and have a look. do the sums most lakes cannot sustain cormorant predation.

Ian.

 

[Cyres]

Come down south and look at Chew would be 300+, see loads all the time on the Somerset levels and on the rivers. They need to be on the general licence.

D

 

[300winmag]

Hi over here in ireland there in large numbers on fresh water the were a bit slower coming in but on one flight line there was 17 counted in less than 3 hours one way traffic a cull is in order

 

[Wingy]

You dont have any cormorants because you dont have any fish of eatable size left mate!!
A cormorant eats about 1lb of fish a day, a local reservoir to me had 52 resident cormorants 3 years ago the amount has dropped as the fish stocks are depleted, now only the odd one drops by and have a look. do the sums most lakes cannot sustain cormorant predation.

Ian.

The ponds were re stocked earlier this year, there are plenty of fish there.
The cormorants normally appear mid to late August, hit hard September - November then ponds usually freeze over for a couple of months then the pests come back before disappearing about March - April

 

[Whitebeard]

The ponds were re stocked earlier this year, there are plenty of fish there.
The cormorants normally appear mid to late August, hit hard September - November then ponds usually freeze over for a couple of months then the pests come back before disappearing about March - April

The cormorants dont know the ponds have been restocked hence they have not turned up, as far as they are concerned there is no food in your ponds but they will find out and when they do your fish stocks will once again be depleted.
Half a dozen of these birds will eat about 50lbs of fish a week, thats several hundred 3-4oz fish, over 3 months thats a hell of a lot of fish.
I have seen first hand how these birds have reduced a quality fishery to a water devoid of almost any small silver fish, granted the water was not stocked but being a canal top up reservoir it used to hold tens of thousands of silver fish, the natural balance of fish stocks has been completely destroyed.
The problem with this particular water is that the reservoir is within a country park and the water birds are encouraged by the wardens including cormorants because "the public like to see them" the public dont see the damage the birds do because its under the water, what really annoys me is that the mink were trapped and eradicated very quickly but the cormorants have floating jetties built for them!!

Ian.