FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 180
The swarms
of warblers are considerably reduced but berry eating flickers have gone from
one male to at least three. The Tree
Swallows and Purple Martins have been long gone but the Barn Swallows still
linger. An interesting note is that
there were actually two Barn Swallows' nest on our neighbour's house and not
one as previously reported. There was
one on the north peak as well as the south.
We also spotted Ruby Crowned Kinglets and Least Flycatchers in our
yard. Both are local nesters but, like Downey and Hairy
Woodpeckers, tend not to show up in our yards during breeding season. Unlike
the woodpeckers they do migrate.
While
driving down rural roads I noticed an influx of cormorants around various
deeper bodies of water especially dugouts.
When stocked with fish dugouts were especially favoured by cormorants
for the easy pickings. Even people in
cities with larger yards that had outdoor goldfish ponds were paid visits by
the cormorants. This did not endear them
to the people directly affected.
As a group
cormorants have been reclassified at least three times and taxonomists still are
unsure where to place them and so the debate continues. Eventually DNA testing will probably resolve
the issue. Since ancient times until the
seventeenth century it was believed they were related to the crow family and
several European countries referred to cormorants as "sea
ravens". In fact the name cormorant
might be a contraction from the Latin "corvus marinus" which means
sea raven. In any case a cormorant
especially in flight looks remarkably like a crow except for the longish neck
and faster wing beat.
Except for
the Double Crested all cormorants are coastal birds that feed strictly on fish
that they catch by diving from the shallows to more than 45 metres deep. In the past peoples in parts of Asia and the Mediterranean tamed and trained cormorants
to fish in much the same way falcons were utilized to catch birds and small
mammals. A ring was put around the
cormorant's neck restricting the size of the fish it could swallow. A small fish would be eaten but a large one
would get stuck in the throat and the cormorant would have to get its master to
help getting the fish out which the fisherman kept for himself. It was hoped that the cormorant would catch
enough fish for the fisherman before it was full itself and lost interest in
fishing. Fishing with cormorants is
still practised in some parts of Asia
today.
The only
cormorant to be found on fresh water is the Double Crested so named because of
small tufts of feathers that appear on either side of the head during breeding
season which are seldom visible even during breeding season. (Cormorants with long feathers on their heads
are often called 'shags"). One
characteristic of the cormorants shared with only one other bird, the Anhinga,
is its habit of drying itself out after a swim. The bird climbs onto a rock or snag near or
in the water, faces the sun, and spreads out its wings to expose a greater area
and to dry out and warm up more quickly.
This pose reminded early Christians of the cross so the bird was given
special status and appeared on the coats of arms of several European
countries.
This week's
picture is of two Double Crested Cormorants perched on rocks at an abandoned
water filled gravel pit near Tuffnell. One
of the birds is in typical cormorant pose sunning itself.
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