Don't worry, there's no new species of bird out there ready to suck your blood.
Unless you count the mosquitoes that have been recorded
to be the size of a pterodactyl micro bus VW Beetle small bird.
I'm referring to Cormorants.
These are Cormorants.
If you spend any time near the water, I'm sure you've seen them sunning themselves on pilings.
Cormorants are fish eaters and they catch their meal by diving under the water.
Some have been recorded diving up to 45 meters.
After fishing, cormorants appear to dry themselves by holding their wings out to dry in the sun.
However, cormorants' feathers are extremely waterproof.
It's thought that they are actually forcing nearby birds to move away to give them enough space to take off in a hurry.
They remind me of vampires when they do that.
Which is why I titled the post as I did.
In Asia, cormorants are used by fishermen to, well, catch fish.
They place a collar on the leashed birds to prevent them from swallowing the catch.
Cormorants can actually kill trees.
When they nest in a tree, the accumulating cormorant poop can actually poison the tree and kill it.
Recently, cormorants have been listed as a nuisance bird and blamed for declining fish numbers.
Funny, I'd think commercial overfishing and the use of GPS and radar more of a nuisance and cause for decline, but I guess since you can't shoot people legally....
Funny, I'd think commercial overfishing and the use of GPS and radar more of a nuisance and cause for decline, but I guess since you can't shoot people legally....
love the mini type post script .. and I agree .. how odd is it that you, CBW and another poster named Robin all have posts about this odd 'duck' Cormorants .. previously I'd only known them as the bird in that poem .. which I cant remember the title of now .. gah ... wait it might be The Old Man and the Sea .. or not ...
ReplyDeleteNo, as of this writing you can't legally shoot people, but please let me know when you can. I have two people, at a minimum, high on my list. Thank you for this very informative post. Please remind me of it when I post a shot of cormorants for the ten thousandth time and then forget what they are.
ReplyDelete