Friday, June 5, 2009

Double-Crested Cormorant

I have new animals for you today! The two birds in my pictures are Double-crested Cormorants. I've been watching these birds for over a month. I've been unsuccessful at getting any good pictures of them until now. But I finally got as many pictures as I want now. Patience is a great thing.

The first time I saw one of these birds was one of the times I was checking on the nesting goose I was watching. It quickly swam away as soon as it saw me, so I only got a few bad photos that time. I encountered it a few more times, but I was never close enough or fast enough to get a good shot. This time was different.

These two are perched on a couple of branches sticking out of the water. Cormorants love to do this, and these branches seem to be favorites of these two. Park landscapers stupidly cut down their other perch which was even closer for pictures. These branches are good though because I was able to get pictures from four different locations.

I took these two top pictures are from the shore of the lake. I had to follow a hidden deer trail through the forest and down to the edge. The only real places for people to look at the lake are the two platforms. Neither of those places had as good of a view as this.

These birds stood out there like this through most of my walk through the park. Do you notice that the bird on the right has its wings spread? It stayed like this for a very long time. I wondered why for a few days. I found out that they have to do this.

Most water birds have oily feathers that keep them dry while swimming, but not cormorants. They have to perch with their wings spread for long periods to dry them out. They can dive down into the water for over a minute to catch fish. When they surface, they'll flip the fish in the air and catch them in their mouth to eat them.

As I said above, the first time I saw one of these birds it swam away. I blinked and then it was gone. It actually dived under the water. I stood there trying to figure out where it went, and then it resurfaced far down the lake from me. It was an amazing sight because I never even knew these birds existed.

I'll be trying to get more pictures of these birds in the future. Seeing them swimming is fun because they have the look of what you would expect from dinosaurs. These birds just look so different from the geese and ducks I've been showing you. The size is also kind of deceptive. Their size is about halfway between that of a goose and a duck.

I hope I see more of these birds. I've read that in the summer they head north, and summer is only a few weeks away. While I was in the meadow area of the nature park I saw one of the cormorants flying over the trees. When I went to look again they were gone. I hope they come back.

18 comments:

  1. AWESOME, AWSOME photos Ratty!!!!! I have been trying to locate one for a picture now for a couple of weeks and have yet to find one. Love your pictures of them!

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  2. I love the 1st photo! The pose and timing so perfect! Beautiful, almost like poetry :)

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  3. Learning new things today, and the photos are just fantastic..

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  4. What neat birds Ratty!! Great photos!!

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  5. The cormorants are indeed interesting, but they have become such a problem in some places that "harvesting" has been allowed. They push other birds' eggs out of rocky nests.

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  6. wow, awesome photos and information. i learned something new today, before, whenever i see birds with their wings spread out, i thought they are planning to fly :)

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  7. Beautiful pics. We saw some unusual sea birds during the last fishing trip, but didn't have a decent camera with us.

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  8. They almost look as if they are doing a dance. I've never seen these birds, they are very unique and great photos.

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  9. Wow. I have never seen these type of birds up close and personal. Great experience for you and wonderful of you to share them with us!
    Thanks Ratty!

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  10. You have this surprise to me. I like to imagine. And it must be fun to see their heads emerging from the water.

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  11. Love these birds! There are a ton of them out here in Maine where I am currently doing research. Great photos!

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  12. WOW WOW WOW! Those photos are great, and the birds are beautiful :)
    Thanks for checking out my photography and jewellery blog, I appreciate it.
    Have a great weekend!
    Meghann

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  13. Cormorant is my favorite subject as well. Good captures. Are they mating?

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  14. Kallen - I've been lucky, these two seem to like my little lake.
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    Vanilla - I was able to choose that one from almost fifty. I took a lot of pictures to get that one.
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    Icy BC - I learned a lot of new things about these birds too.
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    Ginnymo - Thanks. I think they're neat too. The only ones I've seen yet.
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    Sharkbytes - Yeah, I was reading that there are a lot of these birds in Michigan. There was somebody who sent pigs to eat their eggs somewhere. I guess the government was pretty upset about that. I never knew there were so many of these birds here.
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    Betchai - I thought the same thing. I wondered all day why this bird was acting so goofy. Then I got home and found out why.
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    Cube - Memories are just as good as cameras. I've had a camera in situations like that and still got nothing.
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    Poetic Shutterbug - They're also the only ones I've ever seen. They both stayed very still. They were perched like that for hours.
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    The Retired One - I hope to see them even closer one day. I probably won't because they are very camera shy.
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    Rainfield - Seeing them emerging from the water is a wonderful sight. Watching them dive and stay down for over a minute is even more fun.
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    Squirrel - Seeing so many must be great. I thought I was lucky just to see these two.
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    Meghann - Yeah, the birds are very beautiful. Reading your blog is my honor. It is excellent.
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    Roentarre - I don't know if they're mating or not, but they do seem to be a pair. They stayed together through the day. I was told that they are usually with each other.

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  15. Nice shots Ratty, unfortunately in the UK cormorants are a real pest as they decimate fish stocks. is it the same in your neck of the woods or are they just accepted as part of nature?

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  16. Mike - I'm just learning about them, but I've heard that in some parts of my area they are also considered pests. These are the first I've ever seen, but I recently learned that Michigan, where I live, is home to a large population of them.

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  17. Good photos. Cormorants are very common on the West Coast, I've seen them from Alaska to Baja. Great fun to watch.

    SQ

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  18. SquirrelQueen - It seems that these birds exist from coast to coast. These are the first I've ever seen, so I've been missing out most of my life.

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