This bird-like creature was floating near the edge of the pond this morning. I have no idea what happened to it but could it be?

One of those 40 inch class Northern Pike became violent at the intrusion of the creature in her preferred fishing zone. Could it have chomped on its neck and at the terrible taste let it float to the surface, dead?

I left it on the bank with that ugly eye looking up as a warning to others!

Certainly a very sad story here. Things seem to be dying around Bremer Pond.

Hopefully, some of the cats have started disappearing also?

Those pike sure are mean!

Tan has been on the prowl!

Do they get on the shore much, or are they like loons as in they stay pretty much in the water? Just curious as I don't know. Never seen one on my ponds -- yet.

I took in a northern to mount that had a full crow in it's belly. Seems to me if a northern hit that bird it would have been in poorer shape especially with those recurved teeth.

I liked to see a northern pike take on a double-crested cormorant, that would make some awesome underwater video!

Cecil, the ones that I've seen down in Texas were either sunning themselves on dead tree branches with their wings extended or swimming like loons.

Hang it upside down over the pond as a sign to others to stay clear. Good for feeding fish small worms.

Looks a lot like a water turkey to me.

water turkey=double-crested cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus

So Tan is ruled out then, and it's not damaged enough to be hit by a northern pike. Hmmm... Something very, very, fishy here.

Perhaps it was the LPP* bird? The species has been know to take on birds much bigger than itself. They travel in close groupings and are extremely fast!







* Lead Pellet Projectile bird

I still vote for a toothy critter!

There's voting and there's reality.

They travel in packs on the water cruising and then diving for fish. About 2/3 of them in the pack dive while the other 1/3 watch for trouble above water. After they are tired or full and I haven't bothered them they go to shore to preen and dry off. When they are on the shore they are in a tight group and a single shotgun blast would probably take out 6 of them. This is something I would never do since they protected (for some unknown reason).

To scare them off I use a semi automatic 22 with hollow points. A volley of 8 or 10 of those zinging past them make them exit as fast as they can get airborne. After I have done this several times in the spring of the year they learn that I don't like them. After initial training; when they see me walk out the door they immediately leave without any noise makers. Eventually they don't return to Bremer Pond until the following spring when class commences for the young ones with remedial training for the older ones taking place. Luckily for us there are plenty of other waters around for them to fish on though the menu is nowhere a good as Bremer Pond.

I really have nothing against them personally. It is their pack fishing and fish gluttony that causes my actions.

If you want to see how much just one cormorant can eat check out these pictures:









Even though that's a lot for one bird if you put it in perspective the average angler would take home more pounds of fish if he could.

Same goes for people that whine about coyotes and their predation on deer. We harvest a lot more deer than coyotes (and most of us don't need to harvest a deer or starve), but for some reason that bad, bad, coyote needs to die!

That said, these birds would be devastating to a small fish community like a pond. I'd run them off immediately!

HOLY CRIKEY!!!

Well so much for breakfast.

I feel the same way in the evening when I sit down to eat and the wife turns on one of the CSI or NCIS series!

Sorry!

A pretty large flock of pelicans lives about a mile away from here. Sometimes in the spring a few of them will land on the pond. I immediately run them off with a lot of leaden noise. Pelicans take a long time to wind up enough speed to get airborne. Apparently the effort and trouble are not worth it to them and they stay away until the following year.

A non-resident pond owner may never know that these birds are eating the fish in their ponds.

Interestingly enough, neither cormorants nor pelicans like GSF.

Those are some great photos Cecil... Cormorants really are impressive with how much fish they can eat. Their crap is disgusting too! They are all over the area I live this time of year eating all the migratory fish running the rivers to spawn.

CB1 Those birds in your pictures must have been fishing in walleye and YP ponds.

Lots of whiners out there.

Lots of cormorants out there.

Which should we harvest?

Cecil -- you are disgusting!

Those pictures made me go out the the local supermarket for some chicken gizzards. I'm at work -- staying near the city. The first store didn't have any. I had to go to a second store, further out in the county (right near the WV/VA border)!

The gizzards have now been in the pressure cooker for the last 30 minutes with vinegar, hot peppers, garlic, salt, and paprika. I'm about to get them out, chop them up, and stuff them into some sheep intestine -- as soon as the gelatinous liquid boils down, to use to hold it all together!

I doubt I'll sleep tonight in anticipation of frying this delicacy for breakfast and serving on garlic toast!

Ken

Look at your prized SMB at 3 lbs go down the hatch. Multiply by the 100 that show up and there goes a bunch of your fish not to mention what it does to the population balance. That is all in the first day. Day 2 repeat - well you get the pic.

I've got recipes!

I have this the skunk that I shot and the cormorant that started this thread. If I rounded up a woodchuck and an opossum could you make a nice power-stew out of these fine meats?

What kind of fish do you think that bird is eating? I am thinking it's a warmouth...

I honestly don't remember where I got those pictures but I think the bird was feeding in the Great Lakes.

Won't happen. As soon as I see one or more I will run them off. I live at my ponds. I also dye the pond enough; visibility is not very good under water.

Reminds me of a book I bought recently. It's about writing plots and it makes an analogy about making an omelet in one passage. Damned if twice now I've gotten to that part of the book and had to stop everything and go cook up an omelet!

I don't think cormorants are protected. I think you can shoot them at will. I think it is a common belief that they are protected but, they really are not. I could be wrong but one of my buddies told me he asked a Texas Game Warden about it and he said they were not protected. Does anyone know for absolute sure?
Please don't go shoot one until you know for sure in your state. I don't want anyone getting into trouble because of me.

They are protected but in Texas you can get a permit to shoot them.

Yes, they are FEDERALLY protected but, like Chris says, you can apply for and get a depradation permit.

Of course, by the time you apply and actually get the legal right to kill them, there will be no fish left in your pond and they will have moved to the next one.

Sea gulls are protected too, so this tells you how much sense the federal laws make

A friend down in Texas gets a permit to shoot them every year. Last year he thinned the herd by 200 birds.

Then I guess I had better not admit to tossing them Alka Seltzers as a kid!

CJ IIRC I got that pic from aquanic which said it was a SMB. Can't say for sure. I have seen them empty a CC pond (commercial) of 10,000 LBS at 2 lbs per fish in one weekend.