Greg, heres my hypothesis, after eating a big fish meal comorants need a nearby place to roost and digest their meal and they prefer not to travel far. It would be like you or I going for a 5 mile jog immediatly after thankgiving dinner, it's not likely to happen, loosening your belt and hitting the couch is more likely. If you remove the larger standing timber in the water you have basically ruined their resting area. If they do not have a good resting area then they will likely go somewhere else that does. The one common denominator I have seen when observing cormorants is very larges trees standing in the water nearby. I have rarely seen them at lakes with no standing timber. I would be curious to see if removing their convienent roosting spots has a significant impact on the frequency of their visitation. So if anyone wants to expirement, I would be interested to know how it turns out.
