Cormorants and Snowy Owls

[Steve T]

It’s early winter and the cormorants are back in large numbers. Here is a link to a 12.5 MB movie taken last year. This year the flock was even larger (maybe a thousand?) and strung out nearly the entire length of Chuckanut Bay. I believe they are mostly Pelagic Cormorants, but I think Brandt’s are mixed in as well. A few Double Crested Cormorants are on floats and buoys nearer shore, but I did not see any in the large rafts and flocks.

And here is an article about a possible Snowy Owl irruption this year:

www.cbc.ca/news/science/snowy-owl-iruption-9.7004977

[Stephen Chase]

Incredible! While it's hard to judge from the video as they're pretty distant, the vast majority of these appear to be Brandt's Cormorants, told by the short tails and thick, straight necks. They're known to form these large rafts as they work together to trap their prey into tight schools.

Stephen

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Whatcom Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to whatcom-bird...@northcascadesaudubon.org.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/northcascadesaudubon.org/d/msgid/whatcom-birds/A979CC22-85F7-4C31-A804-CB4C3593D4A3%40gmail.com.