Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations They are back and this time its for real!

I have a resident pair of commorants that no amount of yelling or throwing rocks at can deter from eating my fish! The only deterent was my dog swimming after them. I have started to catch some of the fish that they have missed and they all have the tell tale trait of looking like someone had tried to cut their tails off with scissors. I am resorting to more aggressive measures this next weekend.

James,

Yelling will just strain your vocals...throwing rocks is pretty good exercise, but nothing more.

You've got to throw some lead at them...or steel if you prefer. You don't have to kill them, if you don't want to, but you have to make them at least think their life is in danger. It's that or kiss your young fish goodbye. Good luck next weekend....just don't send them my way please.

I give them one chance per weekend and after that they won't be able to do any harm.

I've got just the thing for them. It's a capsule containing 87 grains of fast-acting medicine. It will make "good water turkeys" out of them.

Went to my place this weekend and Mr. Commorant had taken up squatters rights in my pond. Poor thing, he had a heart attack and died.

Cormorantus myocardial infarction...maybe eating fish isn't good for their hearts?

I have seen more water turkeys flying over my place in the last 2 weeks than in the last 6 months. Do these birds migrate great distances? Luckily, they didn't have a layover at my place. I had heard they like dead trees to sit in around the water.

BarO,

Yes, definitely migratory and we are right smack in the flyway in East Texas. I expected to see some with this last cold front but haven't yet. One of the keys to "managing" these pests is to never let them get started or get comfortable with your place. They kiss and tell and before long one or two becomes thirty.

ML, let me know when the 'viewing' gets good. I want to add the double crested cormorant to my bird watching list. However, one must have hacked your computer and seen that you ordered the 'cannon'. Looks like they have found greener pastures. Hope the retirement thing is going well. Have the ponds cleared up from the deluge yet?

Burger,

Yes, the ponds are in the best shape they have been in for the last two years. Really looking forward to stocking rainbows in another month.

There must be some beneficial use I can make out of that cannon, any ideas?...it would make a heck of a July 4th noise.

I haven't posted a picture of a dead commorant yet because I'm still waiting for my permit approval and I'm not going to do anything illegal. I guess the birds realize that I'm not going to hurt them because they are getting to the point that waving my arms and yelling at them doesn't even get them to fly. The only benefit to all this that I can see is that when I do finally get my permit they will just look at me from 100 feet away and surely even I can hit one from that distance! Does anyone know how large a fish one of these birds can eat? I know that I have caught lmb over a pound with the scissor marks on their backs. They don't seem to attack catfish but seem to really go after the bass. Is this what some of you are seeing?

James, I've not seen any species that they won't go after.

This sheet says up to 1 pound a day! Here is a link with lots of bird predators. http://srac.tamu.edu/tmppdfs/37631-400fs.pdf?CFID=37631&CFTOKEN=17959769

I'd think that due to feeding habits, LMB would just be in WT-susceptible locations much more often than CC.