Pretty sure I saw a huge bunch of cormorants heading for big lake. There were maybe 50-75 in the bunch, flying like geese. I didn't know they even migrated this way, or was this some other kind of fowl?
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Pretty sure I saw a huge bunch of cormorants heading for big lake. There were maybe 50-75 in the bunch, flying like geese. I didn't know they even migrated this way, or was this some other kind of fowl?
We been see'n big V's of them flying along the Arkansas River earlier hope they were migrating somewhere.:mad: Need to have a special hunt for them and those pesky buzzards around boat ramps.:twocents
They go somewhere RCC. Obviously they didn't listen and go where I told them or their feathers would be burnt some what. They come through at Reelfoot and stay a few weeks before heading on north. Usually gone by April
Keep 'em down there boys, we got enough up here. This is an article by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission:
NRC discusses hunting changes, cormorant management program - TheAlpenaNews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Michigan, Community Information - The Alpena News
Commissioners and DNR staff heard about efforts to control the double-crested cormorant population in Michigan from Karen Cleveland, an all-bird biologist with the DNR's Wildlife Division, and Pete Butchko, director for Michigan Wildlife Services for the USDA. The management program started in 2004 when Michigan had about 30,000 cormorant nests, Cleveland said. Although the birds are protected by a federal law, a 2003 public resource depredation order gave states the ability to manage the bird, and Michigan is one of five states doing so.
"Michigan is the leader of the number of birds taken under the depredation order," Cleveland said.
In 2011, participants in Michigan killed 7,084 birds and killed the eggs in 3,411 nests. Since 2007, their population has declined by 34.5 percent, and 19,205 nests were counted in 2011. This is closer to the goal range of 5,000 to 12,500 nests.
Some of these efforts have taken part in Thunder Bay, Grand Lake and Long Lake, where cormorants have been harassed and, in some cases, killed to keep them away from fish stocking and spawning sites, according to a program summary. Of the 1,009 birds killed by harassment program participants in 2011, 137 were in Thunder Bay, 45 were on Long Lake and 20 were on Grand Lake.
Near the Les Cheneaux Islands, which Butchko called the flagship program because biologists are getting the best data, the efforts have paid off, he said. As the cormorant population exploded in the 1980s and '90s, the birds were eating so many yellow perch the sport fishery collapsed by 2000. Now, cormorant populations have dropped by 83 percent since 2004, and the yellow perch sport fishery has started to pick up.
"The anglers knew we were successful before we did," he said.
Cormorant populations in Thunder Bay also are down, dropping by 71 percent since 2006, according to program data. Efforts to reduce the size of the bay's breeding colonies will continue in 2012. There were 975 nests throughout the bay in 2011, and the goal for 2012 is to reduce this to 452 by the end of the season.
I think I was really conservative in the number I saw yesterday near Big Lake. I'm fairly good at identifying fowl on the wing. It's just the first time I've noticed them in big bunches Veed up like that.